From: Vanderbilt Clean Air Summit
Today 4:00pm until 6:00pm
Wyatt Lawn, Vanderbilt UniversityMy Comment:
We will celebrate the Clean Air Resolution on Wyatt Lawn. All organizations, universities and individuals interested in environmental issues are welcome. We will have speakers, bands, free food and beverages, and buttons!
Speakers: Councilman Jason Holleman
Mayor Bill Purcell
Bands: Jackson Alley Recent Southern Gentlemen
Thanks to the Metro Council which on November 13, 2012 unanimously passed a resolution "supporting the reducing of greenhouse gas pollution under the Environmental Protection," the environmental activist community is having a celebration today.
The resolution put the Council "on record as supporting the reduction of greenhouse gas pollution under the Environmental Protection Agency Clean Air Act."
It also put the Council on record saying, "climate change is not an abstract problem for the future or one that will only affect far-distant places, but rather climate change is happening now, we are contributing to it, and the longer we wait to act, the more we lose and the more difficult the problem will be to solve."
It also urged, "President Barack Obama to move swiftly to fully employ and enforce the Clean Air Act to do our part to reduce carbon in our atmosphere to no more than 350 parts per million."
This successful effort to pass this pro-EPA resolution was not the brainchild of a Metro Council member or a Vandy student. This resolution originated with the Climate Law Institute which is part of the Center for Biological Diversity and was part of, "a nationwide campaign urging cities around the United States to call on the Obama administration and the EPA to use the Clean Air Act to make significant reductions in greenhouse gas pollution." This campaign is called "Clean Air Cities."
What can the EPA do to control Co2 emission? They can keep industrial plants from being build, they can mandate the permissible emission from any power plant, they can mandate the fuel efficiency of automobiles and do almost anything they want to do without getting specific authority from Congress. The EPA essentially has dictatorial powers and if your Councilman is listed below, he or she voted for this resolution.
Barry, Steine, Garrett, Tygard, Maynard, Matthews, Harrison, Hunt, Banks, Scott Davis, Westerholm, Anthony Davis, Bennett, Pridemore, Pardue, Jernigan, Stanley, Claiborne, Tenpenny, Moore, Allen, Baker, Langster, Weiner, Evans, Holleman, McGuire, Blalock, Dominy, Johnson, Potts, Bedne, Dowell, Duvall, Todd, MitchellI have highlighted above some of the Council members who disappointed me by this vote. A couple of the council members told me they regretted their vote and their vote did not reflect their values and believes.
What should the council do about this issue now? They should introduce a resolution to rescind RESOLUTION NO. RS2012-478. I realize such a resolution would fail, but at least some members of the Council could be on record opposing the EPA and proponents of the EPA could not say the Council support is unanimous.
One does not have to believe that global warming is a grand conspiracy originating with Al Gore, to have opposed this resolution. Just for the record. that is not my position. Yet, I would have voted against this resolution. First of all, I would have opposed it because I do not think the Council should be debating national issues. What next? Should the Council take a position of the confirmation of Susan Rice? On the expiration of the Bush era tax cuts? On the Federal Reserve's $40 billion a month "quantitative easing?" No! Stick to local issue.
Another reason to oppose it is that no bureaucracy should be given that much independent authority. And, thirdly, the 350 parts Co2 per million is arbitrary and members of the Metro Council can not know that that is the right number.
To learn more about this issue see the following post:
Josh Stites is not guilty of endorsing the EPA
The unanimous Council support for EPA CO2 regulation.
Robert Duvall and Duane Dominy explain their pro-EPA vote
Update on the 11/13/12 Council Meeting: Lifetime health care for Council members approved, EPA endorsement, fairgrounds ...
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I believe the Coucil's point is partly that Co2 comes from everywhere we burn fossil fuels, and even local govt's have responsibility for reducing them.
ReplyDeleteGlobal Warming is a threat to the entire world and we need to be in the forefront of solution-creators -- now.