Month 9, Day 15: Bastards.

Your Dysfunctional Senate in Action. Another attempt to gut the EPA by cutting off its funding. This just makes my blood absolutely boil. The letter below will be faxed to all Democratic members of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Dear Senators,

Voting to limit the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency is a profoundly wrong-headed thing to do. In the absence of genuinely robust legislation to address the looming threat of climate change (a threat already made real, for example, to the residents of Pakistan), the EPA is one of the last defenses against climate catastrophe.

The financial and environmental irresponsibility of large energy corporations is obvious to any thinking citizen — as is the fact that these entities are ready to invest staggering sums of money, not in cleaning up after the results of their incompetence, but in maintaining their own freedom to pollute. After BP’s astonishing demonstration of ineptitude and venality, is it really such a good idea to limit the EPA’s regulatory capacity? After observing the unethical and callous behavior of Massey Coal, can we really say with a straight face that the energy sector needs less regulation?

Given that the Senate is highly unlikely to provide the climate bill we need, a stronger EPA is all that’s left to protect this country’s ordinary citizens from the environmental depredations of the world’s largest polluters.

When the matter comes up in committee, please vote against any amendments which would limit the Agency’s scope or cut its funding.

Warren Senders