A Sorry Congressional Record

Congress has a long history of holding hearings on global warming, climated change or whatever they want to call it this week. To be more explicit, they have been examining the buildup of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere and the effects that it has on us for thirty years. Since the Senate Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee held its first hearings on STRATOSPHERIC OZONE DEPLETION, PART 1 ,September 8, 9, 15, 17, 1975, there have been 239 hearings. If you want to see the entire list, it has just been published by the National Environmental Trust.

The most recent hearing with connections to Pombo was KYOTO GLOBAL WARMING TREATY’S IMPACT ON OHIO’S COAL DEPENDANT COMMUNITIES
May 13, 2003
Field Hearing- Clairsville, OH

I have read the transcripts of that hearing and much of it was set up to make the point that signing on to the Kyoto Treaty would mean that coal miners might lose their jobs. Such practice of only calling on the witnesses who will make the point you want to hear is a common practice under Pombo's heavy hand.

Now, lets take a look at the legislation that came out of all this work. From the Resources Committee? Nothing.

I would ask you all to read about Al Gore's comments on Solutions to Global Warming, delivered yesterday at New York University. This is not really about policy. It is a question of values. It is a question of the type of world that we will leave for our grandchildren.

"This is not a political issue. This is a moral issue -- it affects the survival of human civilization," Gore said in an hour-long speech at the New York University School of Law. "Put simply, it is wrong to destroy the habitability of our planet and ruin the prospects of every generation that follows ours."

There is another way to express this view, that of the 7th Generation Ammendment championed by Native American leader Winona LaDuke.

The preamble to the US Constitution declares that one of its purposes is to secure "the blessings of liberty, to ourselves and our posterity." Shouldn't those blessings include air fit to breathe, water decent enough to drink and land as beautiful for our descendants as it was for our ancestors?

We need a Seventh-Generation Amendment to the US Constitution to protect our common property rights and ensure these blessings to ourselves and our posterity.

I can not imagine that Richard Pombo thinks past the next November 7th, let alone the effects of his action on the 7th generation of his family... and yours.

The history of Congress in failing to deal with Global Warming has little to do with economic policy. It has a lot to do with what we value. Not coming to terms with a major threat to our economic and physical security, to spend so much resource on maintaining the status quo of a fossil fuel based economy, shows how little faith that Pombo and the Republican Leadership have in the power of American ingenuity or in the strength of the American Worker. When we need solutions, they are offering placebos, maybe because they are not strong enough to take strong medicine.

At least Jerry McNerney has delivered economically sound solutions that will aid us in holding down the effects of global warming. That alone should be enough to endorse his candidacy. Pombo has given us many, many more reasons to endorse Jerry.

Tags: CA-11, Richard Pombo, Jerry McNerney, Al Gore, global warming