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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 # # # |
