Short Attention Span:Remember the Gulf?

It almost seems like years ago now that we all daily watched as million of gallons of crude oil spilled into the gulf of Mexico live on our televisions. Once the well was capped, well then, news story over. Time to move the cameras to the Next Big Disaster.

It isn't over though, especially not for those who live near or make their living off of the gulf.

BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster poured 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Some washed ashore, even more sank into the gulf. The full impact of all this oil has yet to be felt. The Clean Water Act clearly specifies that BP and other parties will be required to pay fines for the damage to the gulf. There will probably be a lot of wrangling over how much the fines are because there is basically a per barrel fine. This may be why BP was so keen to underestimate the amount coming out at the time. By some estimates, fines may be as much as $21 billion dollars.

Here's the astounding thing. The Clean Water Act does not specify that the money from fines be used to mitigate the damage caused by the disaster. If the government really wants to they can use the money to buy bombers, get haircuts, or even give subsidies and tax cuts to oil companies. This is crazy. Clearly the money need to go toward mitigating the damage from the spill.

The White House seems to agree as their long-term Gulf Coast recovery plan developed under the guidance of U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, recommends that Congress “dedicate a significant amount of any Clean Water Act penalties to the Gulf Coast’s recovery.” We can all trust Congress to do the right thing right? Right?

Here's the challenge. We need a lame-duck congress to pass legislation dedicating recovery funding to the gulf region. One be the best and easiest ways to get them to do that is to write your legislators.

Audubon has made this extremely easy. Do you have three minutes? Audubon has an online form you can use to send a letter to congress. They've done all the hard work, you just have to fill in some forms. I tend to think personal short messages mean more than the long-winded educational message pre-filled into the form means. A simple message saying, "Please pass legislation directing Clean Water Act fines against BP toward restoration efforts" is all it really takes. You can even send the generic message if you wish. The idea is to get the senate to hear that this is important. Numbers talk. We need lots of people to send messages. Money from oil spill fines must go to help restore the gulf!

Thanks for doing your part to restore one of the gems of America. A healthy gulf is a healthy America.

~Kirk

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Take Democratic Action for Climate Change

Today is the first day of autumn and also the day of the United Nations’ day-long Climate Summit so why not consider taking some action to help preserve our planet?

There is currently an proposed rider amendment to an Interior Appropriation in the senate that would exempt greenhouse gases from the Clean Air Act. It was put forward by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. It is important to contact your senators to let them know that you oppose this amendment. The amendment would block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases from stationary sources such as coal-fired power plants. This is completely unacceptable as regulating greenhouse gases is the only way we are going to reduce global warming. This would be like passing a law telling the police they cannot stop crime. The Clean Air Act works and must be protected.

Here's how you can help in just a few minutes.

Get out your cell phone and call your senator's office. Don't just send an email, calling speaks louder and is actually faster. With cell phones you've already paid for your minutes so long distance calls are part of your plan already.

If you're from Minnesota, Call senator Franken at 202-224-5641 then call Klobuchar at 202-224-3244. All you have to do is say the following. "Hi, I'm one of Senator Franken's constituents and I'd like him to vote to oppose the Murkowski amendment on Interior Appropriations." They'll put a little tally in the "oppose" column on their spreadsheet and voila, you're done. Just so you know, Klobuchar's office will ask you for your zip code. It takes about 30 seconds to take part in our democracy. Franken's staff has told me that he is already planning on voting against the amendment but still call. Klobuchar's staff did not tell me what her stance was on the amendment.

If you are from outside Minnesota you can find the phone number for your senator's office here.

~Kirk

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