It’s a brighter day for environmental protection, with new EPA chief Lisa Jackson in charge.  She is moving ahead vigorously to enforce environmental laws and regs that gathered dust during the Bush administration. 

     But Jackson’s determination has not gone unnoticed by the oil and coal industries.  They are doing everything they can to weaken important EPA powers that Jackson intends to wield to address global warming. 

     The Sierra Club and other friends of the environment are spreading the word about amendments to an upcoming appropriations bill that must be stopped.  The two most serious are:

• An amendment by Senator Murkowski (R-AK) to strip all funding from the EPA for fighting global warming.
• An amendment by Senator Vitter (R-LA) to gag President Obama’s well-respected climate change advisor Carol Browner.

     If passed, these amendments would further delay desperately needed federal action on global warming.  In addition, these steps backward would send a message to the rest of the world that the U.S. is not serious about curbing global warming emissions.  And with international climate change talks scheduled for Copenhagen in just three months, China and India may well use U.S. inaction as an excuse for not addressing their own global warming pollution.

     So please take a few minutes to contact your two U.S. Senators.  Tell them to vote against amendments to the appropriations bill that would weaken EPA’s authority to address global warming and that would muzzle Carol Browner.  You can call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121, and ask for an individual Senator’s office.  You can leave your message on the Senator’s comment line;  just be sure to include your name, phone number, and the fact that you are a constituent.  Or if you would prefer to talk to a real person, ask for the aide who deals with environmental matters, and give him/her your message for the Senator.

     It is important that you call both your Senators.  Even Senators whose votes we won’t win should know that many of their constituents are displeased with their actions. –April Moore  

    

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Act now to save our beloved Earth!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.