Last Thursday, July 6, Ned Lamont said the following
in his debate against Joe Lieberman about the Bush administration's energy bill, which Senator Lieberman supported:
it takes away all Connecticut authority over the citing of a floating LNG, liquefied natural gas facility in the middle of Long Island Sound...it was a bad bill because it takes away local control from the state of Connecticut.
This on the same day that Measure T, a people-powered initiative forbidding out-of-county corporations from making political contributions in local elections, voted into law by Humboldt County, California just a month earlier, went into legal effect.
Yes On Measure T's mantra: vote local control.
More over the flip.
Cross-posted at
The Courage Campaign
It's been no secret that whether by corporations themselves or the politicians who are under their sway in Washington, our local control is under vicious assault. Perhaps you'll recall...
In the Terry Schiavo case, Congress and the president rushed through legislation to bar her husband from having her feeding tube removed, stripping state courts of jurisdiction. Federal courts thwarted that effort, and the brain-damaged Florida woman died.
In Oregon, the Bush administration moved to override a voter-enacted right-to-die measure. The courts upheld assisted suicide.
In California, the courts have allowed the federal government to prosecute medical marijuana growing and possession, overriding state voters who approved limited use of the drug for medicinal purposes.
Weren't Republicans supposed to be for states' rights?
Some still are, our governor for one:
"Incredibly, under Republican control of Congress, states' rights are beginning to erode again. . . . They are telling us how to run state education, state health care, state elections and even where we can locate a liquefied natural gas plant," Schwarzenegger said in a speech to a Republican governors conference in Carlsbad on Dec. 1.
Over the last few years, this policy, dubbed federal pre-emption (hmm, so the Bush doctrine isn't dead!), which has its basis in the Constitution's commerce clause, has hit California particularly hard due to the progressive laws passed by voters and legislators alike.
Most recently, federal pre-emption has either overturned, stalled or weakened California's initiatives to clean the air, block unwanted faxes, control e-mail spam, protect personal financial data from being sold and warn consumers of mercury in tuna.
Congress' next target is Proposition 65, California's voter-approved law that requires a warning if consumers could be exposed to toxic chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects.
The House has passed a sweeping food safety act that could roll back Proposition 65 and as many as 150 other regulations nationally in favor of uniform standards. The Senate is expected to take up a bill in the coming weeks.
[snip]
In some cases, the federal government has denied California waivers related to clean-air or clean-water regulations. For example, the state's efforts to remove the toxic additive MTBE from gasoline were stalled, even though the chemical blend was seeping into groundwater. California also was forced to retreat from requirements that automakers market large numbers of electric vehicles. Currently, the state is pleading its case for permission to regulate lawn mower emissions.
We do have a champion here in California in our Attorney General, Bill Lockyer who resists these federal powergrabs at every turn. However, he's finding that it's getting harder and harder to do so.
California has been mostly successful in defending its environmental policies, but Lockyer said he has been frustrated with losses regarding mercury warnings on tuna, keeping banks from selling personal data and blocking junk faxes that pitch low-cost loans and vacations.
Victory is difficult because federal judges tend to give deference to federal laws, Lockyer said.
In the days prior to the most corporatist president and congress ever, the federal government was "content to set national minimum standards and stay out of the way if states, such as California, wanted to be tougher."
"The push for pre-emption is coming from industry going to Congress to both escape new laws and to cut off new consumer-protection ideas," said Gail Hillebrand, an attorney with Consumers Union based in San Francisco.
As Bill Lockyer says,
"[Congress] regurgitate[s] what they hear from business."
Local control needs to be on the lips of every progressive politician, especially Democrats running for Governor (hint hint, Mr. Angelides.) In addition, we need to write and call our representatives in Congress to make sure this stealth campaign to undermine our rights stops now. It may seem out in the open, but these regulations are written by unelected committees in backrooms in Washington and their influence has been depressingly wide-reaching.
I leave you to ponder the ever-growing list...
- Congress significantly weakened a California financial privacy law, handing financial institutions broad rights to market their customers' personal data.
- Congress overruled California law banning unwanted sales pitches over the fax machine and by e-mail.
- Tuna canners do not have to label their products as toxic if mercury found inside is naturally occurring. An appeal is in the courts.
- The House has passed legislation that would pre-empt as many as 150 food warning labels required by states. Senate action pending.
- States no longer can independently set labeling requirements for prescription drugs.
- California's landmark efforts to curb pollution by requiring the sale of electric vehicles and restrict carbon dioxide emissions linked to global warming have been challenged under the federal law giving Congress the authority to enact mileage standards.
- California has repeatedly been forced to seek waivers to the federal Clean Air Act to regulate emissions, including efforts to ban the toxic gasoline additive MTBE.
- Refiners and other energy producers would have more ability to skirt state and local laws governing siting of facilities on federal land. Pending in Senate.
- States no longer have ultimate authority of where certain power transmission lines are placed. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission can step in to settle disputes.
- The federal government has assumed authority over locating liquid natural gas facilities offshore.
- State officials have appealed to the EPA for permission to regulate lawn mower emissions.
- With gun control, states have lost the ability to freely tap into a federal database that tracks firearms used in crimes or accidents; Congress limited the ability of states and cities to file liability claims against weapons manufacturers.
- Businesses that offer health care benefits through a broader trade association package would be exempt from complying with state coverage requirements. Pending.