Fwd: SC statement on Bush Admin secret lobbying against Pavley; Sham climate summit

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Agatha Wein

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Sep 25, 2007, 11:04:22 AM9/25/07

to susan, Nesso Mandilawi, SDCYD--...@googlegroups.com, Pam Sill

Just when you thought inaction was the worst thing Bush could do about climate change...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Agatha Wein - Environment Rhode Island <aga...@environmentrhodeisland.org>
Date: Sep 25, 2007 10:59 AM
Subject: FW: [RICC] SC statement on Bush Admin secret lobbying against Pavley; Sham climate summit
To: agath...@gmail.com

Agatha Wein

Associate, Environment Rhode Island

aga...@environmentrhodeisland.org

(401) 421-6535

From: RIClimate...@yahoogroups.com [mailto: RIClimate...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Chris Wilhite
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 10:37 AM
To: ECRIP...@yahoogroups.com; RIClimate...@yahoogroups.com; osac...@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [RICC] SC statement on Bush Admin secret lobbying against Pavley; Sham climate summit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 24 September 2007
Contact: Josh Dorner, 202.675.2384

Bush Administration Continues Relentless Efforts
to Block Action on Global Warming
Congressional Investigation Uncovers Secret Lobbying Campaign
Amid Administration's Sham Climate Summit

Today, Rep. Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee, uncovered that the White House worked directly with
Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters to engineer a secret
campaign--using taxpayer resources--to lobby Congress and governors to help
block the waiver California and more than a dozen other states need to
proceed with landmark standards that would reduce global warming emissions
from automobiles 30 percent by 2016. This comes as the administration
bypasses serious international discussions on global warming in favor of a
summit of the world's major emitters whose sole purpose appears to be
obfuscation and delay in forging a binding international agreement on
global carbon emissions.

Statement of Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director

"We praise Chairman Waxman for his important work in bringing these and
many other Bush administration misdeeds to light. His work dramatically
underscores the need for proper Congressional oversight.

"It is unconscionable that the Bush administration used taxpayer resources
to fund a secret lobbying campaign against the efforts of California and
more than a dozen other states to move forward with their landmark efforts
to reduce global warming pollution from our cars, trucks, and SUVs. The
law--and the science--could not be clearer on this issue following the
Massachusetts v. EPA Supreme Court decision earlier this year and the
stunning decision in the Vermont case issued just two weeks ago. Instead
of conducting secret lobbying campaigns to derail the efforts of the states
to protect their citizens by taking steps to prevent the worst effects of
global warming, the administration should get out of the way and allow the
EPA to grant the Clean Air Act waiver California and the other states need
to proceed.

"California and many other states--along with nearly 700 mayors and more
than a dozen of the largest counties in America--understand the threat
posed by global warming and have moved aggressively to implement the kinds
of policies that fight global warming and will jumpstart a new energy
economy that promises to bring hundreds of thousands of new jobs and
billions of dollars in economic growth. This determined and growing
collection of states, cities and counties have been forced to move so
aggressively precisely because the Bush administration has refused to do
anything. It is adding insult to injury that the administration appears to
have also decided to use the worst kind of backroom dirty tricks to block
even the states from moving forward.

"The Bush administration will continue its damaging inaction on global
warming this week when, after the rest of the world sits down at the UN for
a serious discussion about how to realistically meet the challenge,
President Bush will hold a sham summit designed to do nothing more than
prevent any and all meaningful progress. The time for aspiration and
musing has passed and the window of time for concrete action is closing
fast. Instead of secret lobbying and smokescreen summits, the Bush
administration should get serious about reducing emissions both at home and
abroad--or least get out of the way of those who are serious about meeting
the challenge."

----
Documents relating to the Congressional investigation can be found at:
http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1495

# # #

-----------------
Josh Dorner
Associate Press Secretary
Sierra Club
tel 202.675.2384
cel 202.679.7570