Bookmark & share:

E-mail this page E-mail a letter to the editor Reader Comments (below)

story tools
sponsored by

littell 07/06/2008

"The White House in December refused to accept the Environmental Protection Agency's conclusion that greenhouse gases are pollutants that must be controlled, telling agency officials that an e-mail message containing the document would not be opened, senior E.P.A. officials said last week." -- from "White House Refused to Open Pollutants E-Mail," in The New York Times, June 25, 2008

The New York Times story leaves me in disbelief.

The EPA e-mail reportedly contained official acknowledgment that global warming is real and addressed the consequences of letting global warming continue. Yet Bush administration staff at the highest level continue to ignore the conclusions and recommendations of their own experts. Faced with historic and unprecedented energy prices, the White House refuses to receive analysis from its foremost authority that might lead the way to solutions.

The majority of states, however, are taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop renewable indigenous energy sources.

States are going after the root cause of global warming -- acting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency, renewable energy production and initiatives to control high energy prices and reduce our dependence on overseas oil.

To that end, we in Maine are taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by implementing Maine's Climate Action Plan and promoting fuel efficiency measures throughout Maine's economy. The reasons why are compelling:

* The world is experiencing unprecedented warming, and the scientific consensus is that it is driven in part by anthropogenic, or human-caused, emissions. Global average temperatures for 12 of the last 13 years (1995-2007) rank as the warmest on record. Maine data shows increasing temperatures that correspond to global heating trends.

* Every week a new study depicts the negative health and ecological impacts that continued warming will bring upon us, including: polar ice caps melting more quickly than computer models predicted; neo-tropical bird migrations occurring sooner and shifting further north; invasive species such as ticks and timber-eating insects moving north; tropic viruses spreading beyond the tropics; global sea level increase threatening many coastal communities; oceans becoming so acidic from carbon dioxide buildup that marine creatures have trouble forming shells and corals; 20 to 40 percent of species likely to become extinct due to global warming.

* The largest quantity of greenhouse gas emissions is carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning. That, in itself, is causing increasing problems and hardships everywhere. The American economy is on the edge of a major recession driven in part by unprecedented high costs for gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, electricity, propane, kerosene and natural gas. Mainers are looking at the highest costs ever seen to keep homes warm and businesses going this winter. Cutting our demand for fossil fuels, which in turn reduces emissions, can relieve some of this pressure.

For these reasons and many more, Maine was the first state to put greenhouse gas reduction goals into law. Maine and other states have since moved ahead with practical and well-thought out plans -- in Maine's case a plan developed by a broad group of business and public stakeholders -- to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Forty-one states have enacted greenhouse gas reduction, energy efficiency, and renewable energy programs. These measures vary from economy-wide greenhouse gas initiatives in California to requirements for renewable energy generation including wind, hydro and solar power.

Tackling this crisis must be a federal/state partnership because, for example, we need national uniform rules to set new gasoline, diesel and heating fuels standards; more aggressive car and truck mileage standards; energy efficiency standards; and federal support for new energy efficiency and renewable technologies. States will tailor these uniform federal standards to their economies and likely will run these programs as states do now: 96 percent of the federal EPA programs like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act are run by the states with federal oversight.

It is common knowledge in the environmental community that EPA has been hampered in its efforts to address global warming by the White House. This incident of a White House staffer refusing to open an e-mail from one of the Bush administration's own political appointees highlights the priorities of an administration bent on protecting record corporate profits while Americans suffer.

The first President George Bush's support was crucial to enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 -- he was a leader who showed balanced judgment in supporting moderate environmental protections. The second President Bush should show similar good sense by supporting a national plan to reverse global warming by using our existing energy sources more wisely and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels from unstable regions by developing solar, wind, geothermal, wood and other renewable sources.

The White House should ask EPA to resend the original document and to develop more solutions (it will take thousands!) -- then read the e-mail and act decisively.

David Littell is the Commissioner of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. He practiced as an environmental lawyer in the private sector for 11 years.

Bookmark and share this story: