A new and hostile congressional leadership is not new to Earthjustice
There is no reason to beat around the bush: Tuesday's election results are a setback in our progress towards a cleaner, healthier, more sustainable planet.
At a time when the world desperately needs leadership from the United States, voters have installed in the House of Representatives those who have vowed to do all they can to obstruct progress in cleaning up dirty coal-burning power plants, reducing health-destroying and climate-disrupting pollution, and protecting wild places and wildlife.
Yet, while the news is bad, we can take heart that the election was not a referendum on the environment. Voters still want clean water, healthy air, protected public lands, and action on transitioning from dirty power plants to a clean energy economy.
Californians resoundingly affirmed their commitment to progress on climate change by defeating an oil industry initiative to dismantle the state's innovative climate law. This underscores our belief that, despite campaign rhetoric from the new House leadership, the public will not tolerate a roll back of fundamental environmental protections.
Moreover, when overzealous legislators prevent environmental agencies from doing their jobs, Earthjustice kicks into action. We've been there before—during the entire Bush administration, our litigation preserved roadless areas of the national forests, essential clean air standards and endangered species protections.
We anticipated an increase in hostile attacks after the elections and have expanded our staffing across the organization to take on these fights.
Over the next two years, Earthjustice will continue to work in the courts, make use of strong partnerships with client groups, and apply savvy lobbying and communications skills, to:
• Defend EPA's early actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change
• Push EPA forward and defend its actions in finalizing new rules that will clean up or retire hundreds of dirty coal-fired power plants across the country
• Prevent oil development in the Alaskan Arctic Ocean
• Force public disclosure about and seek better health-based controls on toxic chemicals we are exposed to every day
• Protect national forest roadless areas and our other public lands
• Keep basic endangered species protections in place so long as needed for wolves, grizzly bears and many other treasured species
• Prevent overfishing of our oceans and restore fish and other marine species to sustainable levels.
These and many other issues are the heart of our work—just as supporters like you are the heart of Earthjustice. Your support has made possible our many accomplishments and assures that we can continue to deliver results no matter what shifts occur in the political arena.
Thank you for all the loyalty you have shown.
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What we need is a good dose of love and charity and selflessness on the part of all Americans. It seems that Americans are so polarized that if you believe in the dignity of life and family and marriage than by definition you are a right wing republican that does not care for social justice and the environment. That is rubbish and until elected officials understand that, the country is doomed to failure whether republicans or democrats are in office. Obama and his cohorts in the house and senate leadership tried to push their radical agenda on a mostly middle of the road America and in their arrogance, got defeated. Do we need changes in health care-yes; do we need jobs for people-yes; do we assiduously need to protect our planet from drilling, dirty oil and coal, over-development, species destruction, etc--most definitely- yes . But I ask you, to do this, must we throw away what is good and wholesome--no. We must defend marriage and families, so under attack by the immorality of the world. We must stop killing our babies in the womb under the guise of personal freedom, we must stop euthanizing the aged and treat them with the dignity and love they deserve. As a country we should be allowed to pray. Those that hate God can put earplugs on for the 30 seconds it takes to thank God for the many blessings he has given us. Perhaps this is simplistic, but it seems to me that a small vocal minority has been trying to take over social and economic policy while the rest of us are too busy working, raising families, and trying to pay the ever increasing bills. The Environmental Movement would be far more successful if it moved to the center. Obama is in this for himself and his left wing agenda; he does not have the best interests of this country at heart. Show me a socialist country that has done anything good for the planet???
Good Lord...do any of you folks have real jobs or own businesses. You and your fellow activist have brought America to it's knees. Most households pay monthly utilities bills that are higher now then mortgage payments were just 25 years ago. Many seniors, disabled poor etc. can't afford to properly heat or cool there homes, businesses are at a competitive disadvantage because you folks decided to destroy the Nuclear Power Industry and refuse to allow more dams to be build which provide cheap clean hydro power, flood protection, and water for the people, fish and wildlife.
How many more African Children will die because you care more about bird egg shell walls getting thinner then you do about malaria, (DDT ban). After a million or so dead and 30 years of indecision, I see you have finally relented a little and have allowed netting with some sort of pesticide coating to be used. Shame on you!
As People and Businesses continue to struggle you folks just keep pushing for more regulation, litigation and control, driving up the cost of almost everything i.e. social services, health care, water, sewage, roads, electricity, housing, commercial construction, manufacturing, food production, schools, community centers, parks etc.
And you good folks can't figure out why the people decided to through your "bought and paid for politicians" out of power...it's not the big evil corporations you need to worry about, it's the people!
A lot of Democrats got defeated on Tuesday, and in general that's not good for environmental policy. But it's more complicated than that. Arguably, the single greatest driver of wilderness loss within the US is population growth (leading to the outgrowth of suburbs, draining of rivers and aquifers to meet water demand, and at the extreme end activities like mountaintop removal coal mining to feed an ever-growing appetite for electric power). An counter argument one hears a lot goes something like this: "What drives wilderness loss and carbon emissions isn't population, but lifestyle; if only we all just downsized our houses and took mass transit to work, population growth wouldn't be a problem". However, this is unconvincing on two fronts. First, whatever our individual environmental footprint, the more of us there are, the more space we'll occupy and the more we'll consume. That will be true whether we all live in caves or mcmansions. Second, that line of reasoning ignores quality of life considerations; if we could choose between there being 300 million Americans (roughly the current population) living in 2000 square foot houses, or 600 million Americans living in 1000 square foot houses, why would we ever choose the second option? What exactly is the upside of an ever-increasing population?
The connection with immigration is that, without it, the American population would be essentially stable (note also that immigrants tend to have larger families in the US than the average for their home countries, so immigration increases not only the US population but the overall population of the world). Almost all our projected population growth through mid-century will come from immigration and births to immigrants. This is simply a nonpartisan fact (courtesy of the US Census Bureau). So if we ended immigration tomorrow (all immigration, legal and illegal), we would instantly stabilize our population. From an environmental standpoint, this would be an enormous boon. But within the Democratic party, the current platform (represented by "comprehensive immigration reform" proposals laid out by the House and Senate leadership) calls for both guaranteeing illegal immigrants the right to remain here, and dramatically increasing legal immigration as well. With legal immigration alone running at over half a million per year, this is a very big deal.
The bottom line: if you're serious about environmental protection, you have to address population growth. Globally, that means increasing the status and power of women, and access to birth control. Domestically, it means reducing immigration. Period. So long as the Democratic position is the exact opposite, trying to pick the most environmentally-responsible candidate can be extremely difficult. But whether you're a Democrat or Republican, this issue can't be ignored any longer.
I feel like a junk yard dog barking at the passing parade! The environmental movement is impotent; too many nice people with good hearts trying to play a vicious game. We need new leadership. We need a political organization like the German Greens. We need an activism that demonizes the opposition. We have to play hard ball, not smerf ball. The Sierra Club is useless, Audubon has disappeared, WWF has its head someplace else, Nature Conservancy appears to be out of business. Nice Guys Finish Last, to quote a guy who was so un-nice he got kicked out of baseball for a year. We're finishing last and we won't do any better until we stop being so nice.
I don't think our groups are impotent,but we do need to emulate their dirty tactics to surivive.Being a country of law we will always need the courts and earth justice who has garnered many environmental victories.I'm all in!
Can't we give it a day or two of rest and look for allies as we recuperate from that generous drubbing at the polls?
I agree with the comments offered by Trip Van Noppen. I heard Sen. Mitch McConnell's remarks on the news yesterday. It appears the Republicans are going to select the message they want to hear, rather than what the voters were really saying. I too am disappointed by some of the processes of the Obama administration, but I sincerely believe the majority of Americans want affordable healthcare, protection of the environment through clean energy, financial reform; they are are frightened by the economy, and therefore unable to wait for the Obama policies to achieve their stated goals. If I had a family, no job, and were in danger of losing my home, I might have voted Red too! The big question is "Can Obama bring these divergent forces together so that gridlock can be avoided??? It's like asking an enviromentalist "can you let the wolves wait while we help out the polar bear?" Obama tried to do it all at once--with disastrous results. Our role as protectors of the environment is to work with diligence and clarity to support moving forward. COMPROMISE has to be the name of the game!
If Americans want health care, clean air, protection of the environment, etc. why did they vote for the republicans? It was exactly the republican government we had before that refused health care and did not give a hoot about the environment and got the country into the mess Obama inherited. I think voters are totally uneducated and clueless. I heard the republican candidates say how they are going to stop health care--obama care as the idiots call it-- how they will reduce government and regulations, and end social security and medicare. And still some morons voted for them. It is unbelievable.
You have to realize that you did nothing wrong in the election. We had two criminal people in Leadership the Speaker and Henry Waxman and rural America wanted nothing to do with them in power. They ask the Democrat Party to get rid them and they said drop dead and they just threw them out of power. They figured that they didn't have the power that they said and found that they did and the rest is history. They want nothing to do with them and would like them to retire and if they don't will try to place them in jail for a couple of years. The Democrats have learned their lesson the hard way as they figured she was all powerful and that group never really showed that much. She found out they had the power to enforce their decision and now they are crying because of it. If she is any position of power they will lose 2012 and there is a good Justice may bring criminal charges against the Speaker and Henry Waxman if they are still in Congress as President Obama can't have them there because he would lose his reelection chances. He would not help either one at all as he knows it is the kiss of death. So now you know what the reason for the loss and didn't believe the power of rural America.
You people claim to love the planet, huh? Well, how many Kids do you have? Overpopulation is the number ONE problem facing this planet today! THAT'S where it starts! If you have more than one Child, you're PART of the problem!
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