WASHINGTON -- Congress has a historic opportunity this year to pass legislation that dramatically reduces greenhouse gas pollution and puts us on a path to clean energy. Unfortunately, that opportunity could be squandered on a deeply flawed bill.
Join us in asking your member of Congress to vote against this bill unless it is substantially strengthened.
The co-sponsors, Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calf., and Markey, D-Mass., based their bill on a "blueprint" from a coalition that includes not only Shell and Duke Energy, but also plenty of other prominent corporate polluters.
Then they had to strike deals to gain support from powerful Democrats allied with polluting special interests (chief among them are Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va. -- a coal industry crony -- and Collin Peterson, D-Minn. -- in bed with corporate agribusiness).
This should be a red flag for those of us who care deeply about the health of our climate. This bill is not the answer.
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The Waxman-Markey bill showers polluting and irresponsible corporations with hundreds of billions of dollars, but doesn't require them to reduce pollution fast enough or enough overall to avoid devastating climate change impacts.
Worse, the bill guts the EPA's pre-existing authority to use the Clean Air Act to reduce pollution. The loss of this EPA authority would mean the disappearance of an already-available tool to fight dirty coal-fired power plants. That means in its current form, passing the bill actually would be a step backward.
We can't afford to take a step backward -- send a message to your representative today and demand a better bill.
We need much stronger legislation from Congress that puts us on a path to the clean energy future President Obama spoke of during his campaign. Unfortunately, it appears too many members of Congress are content to let the tired, special-interest driven politics of the past block real progress. Help us let Congress know this is unacceptable. We have to do better.
Editor's Note: Blackwelder, Pica and Chan work for Washington-based Friends of the Earth.
