Written by Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO of Green For All, and Ben Jealous, President of NAACP
As Senators enter the final rounds of negotiations on the climate and energy bill, big utility companies apparently are making unconscionable demands that threaten the health and safety of all Americans.
For example, The Hill reports: "Power company officials are now asking for relief from upcoming EPA restrictions on pollution the agency has long regulated under the Clean Air Act, including ozone, particulate matter and lead." Other stories also suggest that big utilities want the United States Senate to somehow bargain away EPA's authority to protect America from dirty air and water.
These demands are unacceptable.
The American people deserve a climate and energy bill that not only improves air quality, but also creates jobs that will help pull the economy out of recession. This bill is in danger of doing neither. In spite of this, we are hopeful that there is a better, more equitable approach to this legislation. We believe that American policy can be smart enough to protect both our children and our grandchildren.
The Gulf oil spill, the coal mine explosion in West Virginia--these are just the most recent in a long line of disasters that prove our current dirty energy economy is broken. Our reliance on these fossil fuels endangers the lives of countless Americans. We believe that Americans should not have to choose between personal safety and putting food on the table for our families.
There is only one federal agency standing between our communities and even worse degradation: the Environmental Protection Agency. If the bill limits the ability of the EPA to enforce greenhouse gas regulation, or worse limits the agency's ability to enforce regulation of mercury and ozone, the American people will suffer immediate and long-term health consequences, from asthma to early death.
If the Senate can get this right, this historic climate and energy bill will maintain our clean air protections, while opening the door to a new era: one in which our nation is no longer addicted to dirty, dangerous fuels; no longer dependent on overseas supplies of oil; and finally able to put millions to work in clean, new industries.
Follow Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins on Twitter: www.twitter.com/phaedraEL
Instead, the American people will continue to lag behind the times, to live in the past, to wallow in and compound their own pollution because they're too shortsighted, too narrow minded and just too selfish to compel their government to do the right thing. That, coupled with the total lack of political will in our government, especially in the White House, to fight the special interests holding the country back and to make the right choices, spells doom for anything akin to meaningful climate legislation.
May the revolution be as swift as it is peaceful.
For example, solar is most affordable when it is privately-owned, and offsets the high cost of retail, peak-demand electricity. Utilities charge large commercial users the highest rates of all for this power.
Every privately solar panel takes income from the utilities, makes us less dependent on them.
Which is why they hate solar, will fight it and keep us from owning it.
The utilities lobbyists stand in the way of energy reform.
NATIONALIZE THE UTILITIES.
When the people do NOT own their natural resources they have no recourse against their government. Natural resources are the ONLY weapon that can used against a tryannical government, (in the denial of access to said resource.)
The land and the people are ONE. (Thank you, Excalibur!!!)
POWER TO THE PEOPLE.
And there are also these in rural areas, left over from the '30s when private utilities wouldn't install in unprofitable areas, so the government did it, using locally-owned coops:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Electrification_Act
The Rural Electrification Act of 1936 provided federal loans for installation of electrical distribution systems to serve rural areas of the United States.
The funding was channeled through cooperative electric power companies, most of which still exist today. These member-owned cooperatives purchased power on a wholesale basis and distributed it using their own network of transmission and distribution lines.
Also a trade and budget SURPLUS, universal health care, the highest standard of living in the world.
Germany is "green" all right, or whatever color Euros are :-)
Spain is like CA, or now IL: states that are bankrupt, more so than Spain, but because they are states we'll ultimately bail them out.
Europe is in better shape than we are, and the market proves it. The Euro came out worth $1.00 ten years ago, now it's worth $1.22. That's the market talking: Europe works, US less so.
Besides, the two economies are so remarkably different that it is completely unrealistic to compare them in such a way. But you needn't worry. Congress will not be making any bold moves toward that "green" economy you're so afraid of. Of course, it won't be worries about Spain that keeps them from doing the right thing for our future. Corruption will be more than sufficient motivation for Congress to maintain the status quo.
more handout money for their friends in the name of a problem that actually needs solving.
i love how every legitimate crisis leads to a bill that gives money to friends but doesn't solve the crisis.
If you want electric cars .. fine.. I am for that but we need cheap electricity... nuclear power plants!! but nooo can't do that... its too SCARY!!!
MIT just came out with a study that says natural gas, of which we have loads, will produce way less carbon than gasoline.. but you greenies give it a big yawn or try to sweep in under the rug...
You've made the earth your God and Climate change your religion...
For the same price as nuclear we can build power plants that run on waste products, the sun, the wind and more. All these will create jobs without pollution.
American nuclear plants are of a different design than the Chernobyl RBMK. The can't undergo the same sorts of failures. For one, Chernobyl had effectively no worst-case containment. Secondly, the neurton moderator was separate from the coolant, so when the coolant boiled off, reactivity didn't drop like a rock. In American reactors, this is what happens by design. It's called a 'negative coefficient of reactivity', meaning that as temperature goes up, reactivity goes down. It's a passive safety feature in which the physics of a reactor are such that the it turns itself off in the event of an overheat.
Even a full meltdown won't cause a Chernobyl accident. It's about time we all understood the fact that the Russians' incompetence is not a reflection on all nuclear power.
Hazardous Air Pollutants
Smog and Particulates
Lead Hazards
Water Pollution
Animal Waste
And of course the LIBERALS
http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/lead/
Hazardous Air Pollutants
Smog and Particulates
Lead Hazards
Water Pollution
Animal Waste
http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/lead/
And the worst and most vile pollutant of all LIBERALS
Yes. Yes we do. but even if that were their stated goals, that's not what we'll get, is it? Nope. It'll be loopholes big enough to drive a Mack Truck through. Or a multi-billion dollar industry that has bought all our politicians.
All roads lead to the corporations. If everyone would just stop trying to stem that tide individually, and coalesce against the corruption of our officials, and their huge corporate owners, much of the resistance to their attempts to make progress would evaporate.
What use is attempting climate legislation, financial reform, health care reform, or anything else that might be good for anyone but the corporations before that happens?
You see the root. You even mention the root. But yet you all still whack at the branches...I don't understand.