Murkowski Partnered with Big Coal and Oil Lobbyists to Attack the Clean Air Act
Posted by Cat Lincoln at Jan 18th, 2010 in Green News Feeds
Filed under: Polit-eco, Activism, Climate Change
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Clean Air Act Foe. Photo: xx, Getty Images
On January 20th the Senate is voting on the national debt ceiling. An important issue, but hardly one that concerns environmentalists, right?
In a sane world, that would be the case. However, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has drafted a completely unrelated amendment to the bill which would hamstring the EPA’s ability to enforce the Clean Air Act by banning them from regulating carbon dioxide as pollutant.
This is contrary to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that the EPA in fact must regulate greenhouse emissions, and standards, such as those for new car emissions.
Murkowski’s amendment is funded and fueld by coal industry and big oil lobbyists who are running scared. In December the EPA announced that green house gases are a pollutant, and pose a threat to public health. Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA could go after polluters — like the coal industry — who contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
Although she denies that the bill was influenced by lobbyists from those big polluters, after a Washington Post story revealed that big time coal industry lobbyists advised Murkowski’s team on the bill, she did admit that two “experts” employed by the lobbyist wrote the text. Oh, and they both were in the EPA during the Bush Administration.
Her attack on the EPA’s powers can only be called a campaign of lies and scare tactics, including claims that the EPA would unfairly target “the little guy” like farms, schools and small businesses, and referencing vague threats to the country’s economic recovery.
Reality check: why would that make sense? Sure, individual small businesses should follow ecologically sound practices, but to see any kind of fast and dramatic change, the obvious tactic is to go after the big companies that have a global impact.
In addition to pure logic, EPA Adminstrator Lisa Jackson has also assured the public that their plan is to go after the largest polluters.
The cold, hard light of logic, reason, and the Washington Post have Murkowski possibly backpedaling on pushing through the amendment on the 20th. We can hope.
But even if she doesn’t win this battle, she’s not going to stop attacking the EPA and their ability to hold polluters accountable. It’s still worth your time to contact your Senator and let him or her know that you wholeheartedly support all of the current powers of the Clean Air Act.
There are action alerts all over the internet to make it easy for you to write a letter, like Repower America’s form, which gives you sample text and forwards the letter on your behalf. They also have a form set up for you to send letters to your local newspapers.
The science of climate change, CO2 emissions and pollution really isn’t in question here. Murkowski’s attack on the Clean Air Act is a purely political move, driven by the greed and fear of an industry that doesn’t have a place in America’s future.
Take action now and we can limit their toxic effect!
Murkowski Partnered with Big Coal and Oil Lobbyists to Attack the Clean Air Act originally appeared on Green Daily on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:13:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
