West Virginia Blue
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OK. As we look at the alarming crisis that BP and the oil industry has brought us to, as we evaluate the amount of military spending we are pouring into the middle east for no evident return (and as we consistently apologize for killing innocent civilians with airborne missiles), as we observe politicians and lobbyists letting payoffs and focused fundraising deny the needs of voters in favor of the needs of corporations, as we see the Supreme Court gradually eliminate generations of civil rights achievements, we are getting more and more convinced that making a change in America... indeed in the whole world... is getting less and less possible.
Press Conference Cont., Meeting with Sen. Rockefeller's State Director
In December, a climate change rally was held outside of the old Daniel Boone Hotel in Charleston, along with a press conference in the lobby. The building currently houses U.S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller's office.
People gathered in support of a strong climate change bill and later, some would go on to deliver a letter and banner to Rockefeller's staff and ask for the senator's support.
The media did little to nothing with the rally, and as you all know you need the media to help garner public support for your issue, so I'm posting it now since health care reform is getting butchered (as expected) and then once that gets shot between the eyes (as expected), hopefully climate change will actually become an issue AGAIN, this year (especially in West Virginia), since our country's economy is still hurting and fixing the problem will actually create jobs.
So let's make climate an issue in 2010 and get our Congressional delegation to push for a 35% reduction in CO2 emmissions by 2020 and create much needed jobs in the process! Wreck the world, then save it and make money off of doing so. That's the American way!
***Groups represented at rally and press conference: 1SKY WV (Andrew Porter), WV Environmental Council (Jesse Johnson), Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (Mel Tyree), UE 170 (John Thompson), Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charleston (Rev. Rose Edington)***
I prepared this diary at the request of national climate change activists wanting to better understand the West Virginia political landscape. It originally appeared yesterday as a contribution to the Adopt A Senator series at DailyKos.
What most casual observers of Congress know about Senator Robert C. Byrd is he's the longest-serving member in the Senate's history and he's been incredibly successful at steering federal dollars to West Virginia.
(Political Science Professor) Rupp remembers a quote from former Democratic House speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, that Byrd posted in his office near the Senate Appropriations Committee Room inside the Capitol. It said: "Bob is a living encyclopedia, and legislative graveyards are filled with the bones of those who underestimated him."
Time and time again, Sen. Byrd has delivered for West Virginia. The question of the moment is, what does Byrd think West Virginia needs in the next energy and climate bill?
In an article today in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph a summit planned for July 28th at a local Country Club with the express purpose of rallying everybody they can against initiatives that are designed to reduce carbon emissions and attempt to prove that global warming science is questionable...
By BILL ARCHER Bluefield Daily Telegraph BLUEFIELD — The southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia business community will receive a briefing on what Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association called, “the watershed of the entire Obama administration,” when the Princeton/Mercer County and the Greater Bluefield chambers of commerce as well as the Pocahontas Coal Association host the inaugural Coal Summit on July 28, at Fincastle Country Club.
“The administration is penalizing the public based on science that no one has a consensus on,” Raney said. “There are still differences of opinion on the science of climate change, but Congress is trying to force a consensus on the public because Al Gore thinks you should a consensus.”
The entire article can be read by clicking here. Emphasis mine.
Folks that live in the West Virginia and Southwestern Virginia coal fields deserve better than this. How about a summit where the ignorance and outright falsifications of facts being generated by big coal money can be countered by folks that really understand the environment and the damage being done to our citizens in the cities and hollows they live in?
Those that are denying reality are only interested in continuing to line their pockets while they can. I wonder how welcome those that are opposed to mountaintop removal and understand the damage being done to our mountains and the world's environment would be at this meeting?
I'll give them both credit for playing the politics in as saavy a manner as possible--they've been working all along to extract as many concessions as possible that benefit the coal industry, to the point that Greenpeace now opposes the bill as too weak. Talk about a payday for King Coal, one report says:
among many, many other things, the 1,200-page bill would also devote $60 billion to making sure clean coal isn't a loser.
I haven't decided yet whether I'm for or against this bill (at this moment, I'm leaning slightly for). I'd like to see a much stronger bill--something that is guided more by science and less by politics. Still, I hold out slim hope this bill will get better before it is signed and equally slim hope it provides a framework for making difficult political decisions ahead. The reality of the "facts on the ground" will force our hand--physics cannot be bargained away, no matter how deeply we bury our heads in coal ash.
Finally, for those who are--quite understandably--upset with Rep. Rahall and Mollohan on this vote, what did you expect? In politics, your allies will not be with you on every vote. It is unreasonable to expect that any climate change bill Rahall (in particular) and Mollohan (almost as much) would support is a bill that is going to meaningfully address the magnitude of the environmental issues facing us.
When our Democratic delegation in Congress stops voting the progressive way on Democratic budget priorities, ending our presence in Iraq, and moving toward universal health care, that's when there's ample room to start talking about primaries from the left.
Meanwhile, there's no news here. King Coal still reigns.
Hit the phones again folks. I know, you still have a neck cramp, between the campaign, and the JoeMentun, but if you like Almost Heaven license plates, smush your ears again.
Friday is the deadline for publishing rules that can only be undone by Congressional action to write the rules, or months and years of new hearings and public comments, or legal challenges that would hit the Roberts Court. [Clinton was sloppy and missed this so Bush could undo some of his, arsenic in water comes to mind]
Most of this diary originally appeared back on Sun Oct 21, 2007. Sadly, the human contribution to the global climate crisis has gotten worse, not better, since then.
It's not just your imagination. The climate in West Virginia really has changed. It really has changed in just the last 20 years!
As we reported back in January, at the very end of last year the National Arbor Day Foundation took into their own hands what the Bush Administration has been postponing for years--updating the National Hardiness Zone maps.
Watch an animation from this decidedly non-political organization. As they noted in their press release:
The new [2006 arborday.org Hardiness Zone Map] reflects that many areas have become warmer since 1990 when the last USDA hardiness zone map was published. Significant portions of many states have shifted at least one full hardiness zone. Much of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, for example, have shifted from Zone 5 to a warmer Zone 6. Some areas around the country have even warmed two full zones.
The new 2006 arborday.org Hardiness Zone Map is consistent with the consensus of climate scientists that global warming is underway. Tree planting is among the positive actions that people can take to reverse the trend.
"The Arbor Day Foundation supports tree planting throughout America," says Foundation President John Rosenow. "Providing the hardiness zone for individual zip codes at arborday.org is an important part of that goal, by giving tree planters the most up-to-date and useable data available."
"Of course existing trees should continue to be cared for," said Woody Nelson from the Arbor Day Foundation. "Certain species may be more vulnerable to stress with the current warmer climate, but they will continue to provide environmental and economic benefits as they grow. It's just a good idea to consider more tree species diversity for the future."
As an aside... why is a non-profit organization forced to do the work of a government agency? Could the Bush administration possibly be keeping the USDA from publishing something as basic as a hardiness zone map just because it reflects the reality of a global climate crisis?
What are we going to do about it?
There are some people who seem content to stick their head in the sand. Take my representative in Congress (please!). Here's what Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV-02) had to say in an April 5, 2007 letter to a constituent (emphasis mine):
As you know, there is much debate about the existence, causes, and future extent of climate change, and what steps, if any, society should take in response.
Yes, there is debate among reasonable people about what steps to take. No, there is not debate among reasonable people if we need to take steps. The planet has a fever. Every day we are making the fever worse. The status quo is unsustainable.
Having not been able to change the law through legislation, having see all the court appointees not bring the results wanted on this issue, having over-ruled science every chance created, the White House is taking this in their own hands.
WASHINGTON (AP) - . . . The Bush administration wants federal agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and other construction projects might harm endangered animals and plants.
New regulations, which don't require the approval of Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews government scientists have been performing for 35 years . . .
"I am deeply troubled by this proposed rule, which gives federal agencies an unacceptable degree of discretion to decide whether or not to comply with the Endangered Species Act," said Rep. Nick J. Rahall II (D-W.Va.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, who asked for a staff briefing before the proposal was announced but did not receive one. "Eleventh-hour rulemakings rarely, if ever, lead to good government -- this is not the type of legacy this Interior Department should be leaving for future generations."
Don't we have some sort of funny salamander here in the state with a tour named after it? Out West where I lived their is concern about the desert tortoise. Before Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth there was Bill McKibben's The End of Nature. Does man exist outside of nature, or is creation care strong enough to push back? Anybody worried that yet another Sternly Worded Letter won't matter in the least? Anybody want to ask Shelley McCapito her position on science and the environment? After all she holds a B. S. degree in zoology from Duke.
The administration had been dragging its feet on climate change and the Clean Air Act. Now they are worried that this was another vehicle after the controversy over polar bears and ice. Or was this a nod to mining? I think the West is more attuned to conservation at this point. We all know what Dick Cheney thinks. What do you think?
Chair Boxer had written and asked for a copy of the EPA finding on greenhouse gases (GHG). EPA determined that GHG posed a significant threat to human health. Bush's lawyer GonzalesMeirs Felding now says that the White House controls the document, and since it is a work product they will not release it publicly.
Senate EPW Committee Rules for Business Meetings: Two from the minority needed for a quorum. All the Republicans boycotted Thursday.
Inhofe (OK), Warner (VA), Voinovich (OH), Isakson (GA), Vitter (LA), Barasso (WY), Craig (ID), Alexander (TN), Bond (MO)
Any way to connect with the Virginia or Ohio community to press John Warner (202) 224-2023 and George Voinovich (202) 224-3353? Senators pay more attention to someone from their own state. Doesn't it look bad to side with Chair James Global Warming is a Hoax Inhofe? (To quote Boxer, "Elections do have consequences.")
Does anybody think that The Clean Air Act is not the correct tool to deal with the problem? Does anybody think there is no problem? Does anybody think that the President's policy preference trumps science?
In his well-written piece, author Edward C. Armbrecht Jr. lists solid economic reasons to stop denying the facts, blowing the Charleston Daily Mail's editorial ship completely out of the water.
Armbrecht begins by taking up the gauntlet:
Energy alternatives are the future -- will W.Va. lose out?
With regard to recent Daily Mail editorials regarding "the myth of global warming" and Henry Payne's diatribe against Sen. Rockefeller (Daily Mail, June 4), I'd like to make a few comments.
West Virginia needs to develop a plan to address climate change, according to Nikki Roy, director of congressional affairs for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. Roy addressed legislators Tuesday and it sounds from the Gazette like some folks didn't warm up to the message, if you'll pardon the expression.
(By the way, we left the light on for you at Goat Rope.)
What the traditional press doesn't spend time covering...
I hear there's a game this evening.
If you're looking for something else to occupy your time, here is a long video I hear is really good. (Confession, I've only had time to watch the opening 10 minutes. So far so good.)
It's a major disappointment to me that the global climate crisis has been largely absent as a topic on the Presidential campaign trail.
Every scientific study to come out recently--in the last several months since the IPCC agreed that man-made global warming is a reality and even the Bush administration agreed we need to address it-- shows the trajectory is much worse than previously thought.
Every viable scenario for addressing the global climate crisis involves slowing down (or reversing) the use of coal. West Virginia should start planning now for a post-carbon economy--not later when the transition will be even more painful. As a state we ought to be aggressively pursuing alternative carbon-free energy solutions instead of the false promise of carbon sequestration and "clean coal."
Lets act now while we have a chance to be move to the top of a ranking as experts, producers, and consumers of green energy.
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