December 2015: The Fight for the Environment Rages On — Local to Global
This week kicks off the highly anticipated Conference of the Parties (#COP21) meeting in Paris. Virtually every country in the world has agreed to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. This meeting will hash out exactly how the world can reach our collective goal. World leaders agree that the climate is changing rapidly, the impacts are happening now, humans activities are the leading cause, and the world needs to take action, now.
Back home the situation is different from that worldwide agreement and vision of prosperous life in a stable climate system. The US House of Representatives voted on a Congressional Review Act resolution to permanently block the Clean Power Plan (CPP). The CPP is a critical regulation necessary to reduce carbon pollution from power plants. Clean Water Action signed a letter with our allies in opposition to this shortsighted and embarrassing move to derail commonsense solutions. The vote against CPP is in direct contrast with polls showing widespread public support for the new pollution safeguard and a step backwards in the fight to address climate change.
Lastly, the Science Advisory Board (SAB) Panel is continuing its review of EPA’s Assessment of drinking water impacts from hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas on a four-hour public conference call on December 3rd at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
There is consensus within the Panel that the core conclusions of the Assessment are not supported by the underlying data and must be revised — meaning the political spin inserted in the otherwise groundbreaking 5- year scientific study is untenable. We have serious concerns that the top-line phrasing in the Executive Summary was the work of fossil fuel interests or other stakeholders working to confuse the public and obscure the real impacts to drinking water from fracking. So far 37 people from impacted communities and organizations have signed up to support the SAB in its review of the Assessment and offer more ideas to improve the final Assessment and hold EPA accountable.
It’s another week in the fight to rebalance the debate around climate change and the impacts of oil and gas development on public health and the environment. From the local to the global, we are not going anywhere.
