As many Kossacks noted over the last few days, there was an important vote coming up in the House yesterday. That vote was on a bill that, if it became law, would cut the heart out of one of the most important American conservation laws -- the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Well, that bill passed the House despite thousands of calls to the Hill and opposition from 78 conservation groups working together.
So you may be wondering -- what now? What's the next stage in the battle to save the ESA?
Read on to find out, and to take part...
Like many of you, I was pretty frustrated by the House vote yesterday on the bill introduced by Rep. Richard Pombo to gut the Endangered Species Act.
Why? Because Pombo's bad idea passed with a decent margin -- 229 yeas to 193 nays. And while 34 Republicans voted no, they were outweighed by the number of Democrats crossing over to vote yes -- 36.
So when I was walking home last night I started brainstorming about what the next step would be in this fight. The next hurdle the bill will have to get through is the Senate, so the challenge is: how do we make Pombo's proposals so radioactive that Senators don't feel as free as Representatives did to vote for them just to throw a bone to strip-mall developers and other special interests?
It occurred to me that there was only one cure for this creeping Pombo-ization: sunlight. The only reason bills like this one get any traction is because they slip below the radar of the public. If you walked up to almost any average person on the street -- liberal or conservative -- and described the bill's provisions to them, most would gag in disgust.
Which is why the next step in Oceana's campaign to stop the Pombo bill is to get Letters to the Editor on it printed in as many newspapers as possible before the Senate takes this issue up.
It's easy for news about the environment to get lost in the shuffle of the war and the general hurly-burly of politics. We have to start reminding the media that there's a critical story happening right under their noses -- and that they are missing it. And every letter that gets printed will give every Senator one more reason not to support Pombo's proposals.
So last night I set up an online tool that you can use to write the editor of your local newspaper in three easy steps. Here's the link:
It's easy to use, and pretty cool -- for example, I loaded it with a selection of talking points that you can add into your letter with a single click. This lets you easily stay on message while still allowing you to use your own words (all the points are editable once you load them in).
Now all I need is your help! If you could take a few minutes of your time to use this tool to write to your local paper, you'd be helping us get this stage of the ESA battle off to a strong start!
I know that we can keep this bad bill from becoming a bad law. Defeat in the House should be our wake-up call: either we take this threat seriously now and act, or we lose one of the cornerstones of American conservation law.
I'm still in the fight. Will you join me?