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The Big Picture: Help Obama Build Our Clean Energy FutureReport from the Seattle EPA Global Warming Hearing
Posted by:
Heather M on
May 22, 2009 at
9:19AM PST
We've heard from some attendees of yesterday's Seattle EPA global warming endangerment hearing, and the news is great! Below are statements from Craig Segall and Kathleen Ridihalgh, two Sierra Club staffers who were there in person and sent along their impressions.
Craig Segall: In Seattle, banners hung from the roof of the convention center, hundreds of people rallied outside, and citizens sang EPA songs about penguins from the speaker’s table. This hearing wasn’t a dry bureaucratic function: It was something closer to a party. People had good reason to celebrate. The EPA is on the verge of finalizing its endangerment finding – a solidly-constructed determination to regulate global warming pollution, based upon decades of work by scientists all over the world. It’s the beginning of the end of the climate crisis. The crowd was big and boisterous. Applause followed most comments, and I saw at least a few hugs. Comments themselves ran the gamut from the intensely personal to the highly technical. Moms brought their kids up to the podium (as ‘visual aids’, as one put it) and commenters told stories about hiking in the mountains, watching glaciers melt, and growing up in the coalfields. A crowd of scientists, academics, and activists kept EPA up to date on the latest evidence of mounting global danger. And pretty much everyone urged EPA to act now. Two memories last for me. The first memory is of all the youth activists – some in t-shirts, some in suits, and one guy, memorably, in a garbage bag. They know that this is the defining effort of their generation – which is my generation, too – and are ready to fight for change with humor and with an earnestness that is wholly unmarred by self-importance. The second is of Sierra Club volunteer Nell Johnson, who testified after I gave a pretty dry legal talk on the Clean Air Act. Nell grew up in the coalfields of West Virginia and spoke vividly of creeks running black with coal dust, of friends dying young, of a father who had lost his toes in the mines. She spoke fervently and beautifully about our chance to finally break free of coal. And now, finally, we may. It’s a sunny day in Seattle . The world is changing – and maybe for the better. Kathleen Ridihalgh: A spirited crowd estimated at 2,000 people gathered outside an EPA hearing in Seattle Thursday, urging the Obama Administration to take action on reducing global warming pollution. Hundreds of children and students joined members of the faith community, health officials, business leaders, environmental leaders, and elected officials including Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels to call for action to address the threat to public health posed by global warming pollution, support real solutions to global warming, create more clean energy jobs and opportunity in the growing clean energy economy, and end America’s dependence on dirty energy sources like coal. I kicked off the rally by having dozens of kids on the stage chant -- "Act Now! End Coal!" In the morning, Washington's Governor Christine Gregoire also made a significant announcement to further move our state in her commitment to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. She signed an executive order that sets a low-carbon fuel standard, reduces traffic and emissions in urban areas, and requires Washington’s only coal-fired electricity generating plant -- the TransAlta facility in Centralia -- to comply with the state emissions performance standard usually reserved for new power plants no later than 2025, resulting in at least 50% emissions reductions from the plant.--- Craig, Kathleen and all of us want to send our thanks and recognition out to the many people who helped organize such a great turnout - including recruiting more than 120 volunteers to bus and carpool from Oregon - taking the entire day (a 6-hour round trip) to testify and be part of the hearing. Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard on these hearings - Our Big Picture campaign is really taking off! Next up - host a Big Picture House Party on June 2nd!
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