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Congressional Watch, February 2010 Edition

Congressional Watch is a monthly e-newsletter of Montana Conservation Voters Education Fund, letting you know about the votes and actions of Montana's Congressional Delegation - Senator Max Baucus, Senator Jon Tester, and Congressman Denny Rehberg - affecting energy and other conservation issues.

 

HOW THEY VOTED

Rehberg wants more dirty air for Montana?

In late January, Rep. Denny Rehberg issued a press release announcing that he had signed on as cosponsor of a bill introduced almost a year earlier that proposed excluding greenhouse gases from the Clean Air Act. The bill, introduced by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in January 2009, specifically excludes carbon dioxide, hydrofluorocarbons and other greenhouse gases from the definition of air pollutants regulated under the Clean Air Act. It sits in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), with no hearing date scheduled. Rehberg signed on as cosponsor in December 2009.

 

COMING UP

Despite claims that comprehensive climate change legislation is dead for the year, some Senators and others are saying that's not the case, and are resisting calls to pass an energy bill without a climate cap.

Politico: Coming together on climate bill (February 8, 2010)

The Hill: Kerry: 'Dead wrong' to write obituary on climate change bill (February 10, 2010)

New York Times: Sen. Graham Slams Push for a 'Half-Assed Energy Bill' (February 3, 2010)

Meanwhile, several efforts are underway to prevent EPA from regulating greenhouse gases. In addition to the bill introduced in January 2009 to which Rep. Rehberg just added his name, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND), and other legislators have also introduced measures designed to halt EPA's role in regulating greenhouse gases. They argue that Congress, not the EPA, should regulate greenhouse gases...yet they oppose climate change legislation. In reality, they don't want ANYONE to regulate greenhouse gases.

EPA administers the Clean Air Act, passed by Congress in 1970 and updated in 1990 to control air pollutants from motor vehicles, power plants, refineries and other significant pollution sources. EPA had previously issued an ‘endangerment finding' (see January Congressional Watch) under the Clean Air Act following a 2007 US Supreme Court ruling that concluded that EPA not only could regulate greenhouse gases under the existing Clean Air Act, but should regulate such pollutants if they were found to be hazardous to human health. It is expected to start releasing rules controlling the health-threatening emissions from the largest polluters in March, starting with non-stationery sources.

Mother Jones: Coal State Dem Moves to Block EPA From Regulating Carbon (January 11, 2010)

Washington Post: EZRA KLEIN: The EPA Option (February 9, 2010)

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Baucus and Tester on federal climate change legislation

Missoulian: Baucus, Tester prepare to take up legislation to cap greenhouse gases (February 14, 2010)

 

 

TAKE ACTION

A group of Montana leaders in small business and farmers met with Montana's senators on February 3 in Washington, DC to urge them to work for comprehensive climate change legislation. Help spread this same message!

Senators Baucus and Tester need to know that Montana citizens want strong climate change legislation that will mean clean energy jobs for Montana.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW ARE TO CALL SENS. BAUCUS AND TESTER, AND WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR - AND COPY IT TO SENATOR BAUCUSand SENATOR TESTER.

The message is simple:

  • We need leadership to pass comprehensive climate change legislation now that will enhance our national security, create millions of American jobs, and make the planet healthier.
    • America's dependence on foreign oil hurts our economy, helps our enemies, and puts our security at risk.
    • Montana households would benefit from investments in clean energy with expanded job opportunities, rising wages, and reduced home heating and utility costs.
    • Carbon pollution is costing more each year in damage from droughts, spread of insect-borne diseases, and more intense weather events like fires, hurricanes and storms.
  • Oppose any attempts to weaken EPA's responsibilities under the Clean Air Act. EPA's scientifically-sound finding that greenhouse gas pollutants are harmful to public health, should stand.

Here are some tips to help you write an effective letter and help get it published.

 

 

BLOGS AND LETTERS OF INTEREST

  • Washington Post: ‘ON FAITH:' Snowmageddon a sign of 'global weirding,' op-ed by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, a professor at the Chicago Theological Seminary and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (February 8, 2010)

    "As members of Congress try to shovel out from underneath what is being called "snowmageddon" in Washington DC, they might pause in their labors and contemplate how weird their weather is becoming. "Global warming" is pretty much a misnomer. Our weather isn't always getting warmer, but it's getting a lot weirder. The world's weather is changing, and changing in dramatic and erratic ways. Hunter Lovins, co-founder of the Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Institute, is credited with creating the term "global weirding" as a much more descriptive term for what's happening to our weather patterns than the "global warming" or even "climate change." More...

 

 

ACTIONS AND OPINIONS

  • A Caucus of a Different Stripe: Rehberg and other coal-state legislators launch Congressional Coal Caucus

    A few months after joining the newly-formed Congressional Natural Gas Caucus, Rep. Rehberg joined other coal-state legislators in forming the Congressional Coal Caucus. The purpose of the coal caucus, according to a January press release from Rep. Rehberg, is to provide a voice for coal communities in Congress and to work to encourage the use of coal. That's My Congress web site reports there are 251 such Congressional caucuses.

    This is the same coal industry whose main lobbying group spent $47 million lobbying Congress in 2008 - including $37 million for advertising alone. Arch Coal - the company that has leased 730 million tons of privately-owned coal in the Otter Creek area of Eastern Montana and just sent a ‘non-bid' letter of interest to Montana for its coal in the same area if the price was lowered - provided $5 million of the $47 million spent by the coal industry lobbying group in 2008, according to Mother Jones. The members of that same lobbying group, American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, however, spent less than two cents on clean coal research for every $1 of profit, according to Mother Jones, based on a report from the Center for American Progress, relying instead on Congressional largesse to help fund their industry's research.
  • Baucus and Tester appeal to Obama to release funding to help low income Montanas pay heating bills

    The US Department of Health and Human Services released additional funding from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program's emergency contingency fund in late January.

    Baucus and Tester Press Release: Senators: LIHEAP funding on the way     (January 21, 2010)

 

 

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