Friends of The Earth Action Launches Campaign to Fix or Ditch Lieberman-Warner Global Warming Bill
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 30, 2008
8:51 AM
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CONTACT: Friends of The Earth
Nick Berning, 202-222-0748
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Friends of the Earth Action Launches Campaign to Fix or Ditch Lieberman-Warner Global Warming Bill
Initial ads focus on gap between bill and Democratic presidential candidates’ positions; ads run in Roll Call and The Hill and on progressive and environmental blogs
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WASHINGTON - January 30 - Friends of the Earth Action launched a campaign today to substantially improve or defeat a Senate global warming bill that rewards polluters with giveaways worth up to a trillion dollars.
The group announced it is running print and web ads calling attention to disparities between the Lieberman-Warner bill and the position shared by the top three Democratic presidential candidates. The ads begin what will be a sustained effort to push Congress to pass stronger global warming legislation.
“Do Democratic senators really want to undermine their own presidential candidates on global warming?” asked Friends of the Earth Action President Brent Blackwelder. “The top Democratic candidates have all called for global warming pollution to be reduced 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050; they also want to make all polluters pay through a 100 percent pollution permit auction. The Lieberman-Warner bill falls far short of these goals.”
The group’s ads—including full page spreads in Roll Call and The Hill as well as ads on top environmental and progressive blogs, such as Grist, OpenLeft and DailyKos—note that both of the Lieberman-Warner bill’s chief sponsors have endorsed Sen. John McCain for president. Sen. McCain authored earlier versions of the bill with Sen. Lieberman, and would benefit politically from its passage if he becomes the Republican nominee.
“This is a potential political debacle for Democrats, but that’s not why we’re concerned,” Blackwelder said, highlighting what he said are the bill’s two most critical substantive problems. “First, it includes massive giveaways to corporate special interests. Handing polluters a trillion dollars is not the way to solve global warming. Second, it fails to reduce global warming pollution at the rate scientists have said is necessary. Eighty by 2050 from 1990 levels is a bare minimum, giving us only a 50 percent chance of avoiding the worst effects of global warming. This is the biggest threat facing our nation. If this Congress and this president can’t get the job done, the next ones absolutely must.”
The Lieberman-Warner bill was reported out of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works December 5 on an 11-8 vote. It is not yet clear when or if the bill will come to the floor. More information about the bill, including an analysis of its polluter giveaways, a one-page overview, and copies of Friends of the Earth Action’s ads, is available at www.Lieberman-Warner.org.
A copy of the print ad can be found here: www.FoEAction.org/Lieberman_Warner/L-W__Ad.jpg
Samples of the web ads can be found here: http://www.agit-pop.com/lwbill/preview.html
Friends of the Earth Action (http://www.foeaction.org/) provides extra muscle to our sister organization, Friends of the Earth, in legislative battles affecting our environment. FoE Action and our affiliated PAC also serve as Friends of the Earth's political arm, making thoughtful political endorsements, providing direct support to candidates, and placing environmentalists in the field on critical campaigns. Friends of the Earth Action's mission is to promote a clean, healthy and just world and to ensure that we have lawmakers who will work to protect the environment.
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