Letter to Senator John Cornyn

I wrote Senator Cornyn some time ago to urge him to support the EPA's right to regulate C02 pollution under the Clean Air Act. GOP senators were mobilizing to prevent this from happening due to pressure from industry lobbies who want to keep polluting freely.

Below is the response I received, to which I replied. You can find my response below his:


On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 9:31 AM, wrote:

Dear Mr. Sarda:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas endangerment finding.  I appreciate having the benefit of your views on this matter.

In April 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded in Massachusetts v. EPA that carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases may be regulated under the Clean Air Act (CAA).  In response to this decision, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a finding on December 7, 2009, that the present concentrations of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, constitute an endangerment to public health and welfare.  A second EPA finding concluded that emissions from new motor vehicles and their engines also endanger public health, and therefore are also subject to regulation under the CAA.  I am pleased that our nation’s air quality has steadily improved since implementation of the CAA; however, I remain concerned that the treatment of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, as pollutants under the CAA is a disservice to the American people and misrepresents the legislative intent of the Act.

I support efforts to improve our nation's air quality based on sound scientific and economic principles.  However, the EPA's determination on this matter disregards numerous proposals before Congress that seek to address our nation's environmental challenges, in favor of expanding EPA's regulatory authority under the CAA.  Any decisions regarding how to control greenhouse gas emissions should take into consideration the impact these costly regulations will have on stakeholders, including states, industries, and citizens.  Furthermore, it is essential that this process is transparent and accountable to all Americans, and I strongly believe that Congress is the most appropriate forum to review the scope and magnitude of the impact that the EPA's endangerment finding would have on our economy. 

As such, I joined several of my Senate colleagues in co-sponsoring Senate Joint Resolution 26 (S.J. Res. 26), a resolution which would have prevented the EPA from moving forward with their endangerment finding or proposing any substantially similar regulations.  Unfortunately, the Senate failed to enact S.J. Res. 26 when it was considered on June 10, 2010, and I remain concerned about the consequences of empowering unelected bureaucrats to impose a new national energy tax on American families.  As a member of the United States Senate, I look forward to a full and open policy debate regarding environmental issues, and you may be certain that I will keep your views in mind as the Senate continues its work on this matter.

I appreciate having the opportunity to represent the interests of Texans in the United States Senate.  Thank you for taking the time to contact me.

Sincerely,
JOHN CORNYN
United States Senator

517 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Tel: (202) 224-2934
Fax: (202) 228-2856
http://www.cornyn.senate.gov


This is what I sent today in response to the reply from his office:

Dear Senator Cornyn,

thank you for your response. However I must point to a part of your response that exemplifies the problem we're facing:

'I support efforts to improve our nation's air quality based on sound scientific and economic principles.'

The reason that EVERY LIVING SYSTEM on this planet is in decline - every single one - is because economic principles have been used as a primary guide to drive decisions. Killing the ecosystem and its inhabitants is not sound business. As long as short-sighted, profit-minded special interests control the agenda, the health of our country and its citizens will continue to suffer.

If a foreigner tries to endanger American lives, we call it terrorism. If an American business does the exact same thing, we call it free enterprise and 'sound economic principles'.

The leaders of our nation, yourself included, have a moral and civic obligation to protect our land from any harm that can come to it. Sometimes the right choice is not the cheapest choice, but it's still the right choice. Letting the EPA regulate industries that pollute our air is not only within their mandate, it is an absolute necessity!

Do the right thing for all your constituents, Senator, not just the small group of industry barons who have bottomless pockets to finance political campaigns.

Sincerely,


Bruno Sarda

Blog Action Day: Water as a human right

Today is Blog Action Day 2010. This year, the topic is water. Why?

Water is something all living creatures on this planet need to survive. And as much as some boardroom executives may claim different, nobody owns water. We just use it. It evaporates, it gets flushed, it works its way back into the system somehow. Fact is, water can't be manufactured. No new water has been created since the beginning of time. Sure, different climate patterns means that at different times there could be more or less water in the air, or in the soil, or in the oceans, etc...

The bottom line is this: We all need water, just like we all need air. And just like with air, what one group or country does to its water is bound to have downstream impacts on others, neighbors as well as people on the other side of the globe. More and more experts in fact are predicting that water may become a key trigger for armed conflict in the coming decades.

So on this Blog Action Day, my message to my fellow humans is this, and especially those closer to me in the Western world: None of us have more of a right to water than another. When we use more than our fair share, we are stealing from someone else. When we pollute and waste the water we have, we are committing crimes against our species and our planet.

I was happy to see the United Nations declare access to water a human right recently. But then this needs to turn into meaningful action:
- Never again should we see the type of corporate greed that led to the water riots of Cochabamba several years back. All nations should secure water as a public utility and protect its access, ensure its cleanliness, and defend it against any attempt by one group to profit from its control and distribution.
- All companies that rely on water as part of their business operations must be held to the highest standards to safeguard it from pollution or excessive, wasteful use. The shipping, oil and mining industries specifically come to mind for the former, and some forms of agriculture for the latter.

My sincere hope is to see more and more people act as citizens of the earth before acting as citizens of a given nation, or employees of a given company, members of a given religion or political party, etc...

We only have one planet, it belongs to all of us - and none of us. Let's cherish it, and treat it as though our grand children and their grand children and their grand children have as much of a right to a vibrant, healthy and bio-diverse planet as the one our grand parents inherited from their grand parents.