The CEOs of the Big Three automakers are driving to D.C., where they will be back before Congress, asking for their bailout. Earlier today, the word was that Congress would not impose any environmentally green conditions on handing over the money.
By afternoon, a lone environmental lawyer in Massachusetts had raised the alarm, got Barney Frank on the phone, had others get in personal touch with five other members of Congress, and was hearing rumors that Sen. Harry Reid, Rep. Henry Waxman, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi might be waking up to the need to "green the auto bailout" on Friday. Much more needs to be done. This is the story of a one-person cry-from-the-heart that could snowball into a movement by tomorrow.
On Thursday morning, Daily Kos readers have the opportunity to
At 1:00 pm EST, attorney Matt Pawa sent out an e-mail to a few dozen friends on a list, who are concerned with climate change litigation. Matt has been involved in defending state governments like Vermont that want to follow California's lead and regulate CO2 emissions from automobiles, in the absence of any action from the Bush Administration. (One of the cases is known as the Pavley case.) His e-mail expressed his pain:
Dear Friends:
I am angry. Actually, I am incensed, livid, and enraged. On Friday [note: this may be Thursday], Congress will hold hearings on the Detroit bailout. I called my Congressman's office (happens to be Barney Frank) to find out what the latest is. Here is the latest (I hope you're sitting down): Congress seems to be coalesing around a proposal to give GM, Chrysler and Ford bridge loans to get them through the New Year with NO ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ATTACHED.
Matt went on to report that Barney Frank did not plan to ask any questions about the litigation that GM and Chrysler are pressing against the states' greenhouse gas laws. Matt had his own questions to Congress:
Why is Congress not going to simply enact -- as a condition of any bailout money -- a statute that says Judges Session in Vermont and Judge Ishii in California were right: the fuel economy law does not preempt state greenhouse gas laws? That would put an end to the lawsuits by GM and Chrysler against the laws that are now in place in 14 states covering half of our nation's population. It would remove the risk of a conservative panel of the 9th or 2d circuit courts of appeal reversing Judges Sessions or Ishii, even if people like me think we will win these appeals. It would remove the risk of the Rhode Island or New Mexico cases yielding a different result from those reached by Judges Sessions and Ishii . . . . It seems to me that that is just a basic condition of good citizenship: don't take the taxpayers money if you cannot live with a law that terminates your litigation against half the nation's taxpayers.
Next he proposed questions that should be asked of the automakers:
"Will you drop your lawsuits against the states in exchange for the bridge loans?" "Will you (GM) agree as a condition of the loan package to sell your intellectual property for the EV1 electric vehicle -- the vehicle that you killed and crushed under the pretence that no nones wants a plug-in electic car -- to someone else willing to build that car?" There are about a million more such questions dying to get asked.
And then he seemed to descend into despair:
But as far as I can tell, no one is raising the temperature on Congress to do this. No one is threatening to raise holy hell if Congress just coughs up the money with no strings. . . . What a tragedy.
Then, three hours later, Matt got a shock. Barney Frank was on the telephone for him.
Folks - Update on the fast moving Detroit bailout situation. Incredibly, Barney Frank just returned my call himself. He agreed that (1) no federal loan money should go to Detroit without enactment of a legal provision making clear that EPCA does not preempt state greenhouse gas regulations on motor vehicles that are duly adopted under the Clean Air Act and further that he will talk to the Speaker about that; (2) he will ask questions of the CEOs or other company witnesses on Friday about whether they would drop the lawsuits as part of the federal loan package deal; and (3) he will ask questions of the Wagoner about the EV1, in particular, whether GM sell its EV1 intellectual property to another company to make that vehicle as part of federal loan deal.
But Matt would not rest on the basis of one telephone call.
I sure hope that this is not just a politician telling me what I want to hear. I am drafting questions for him now. We shall see. Please keep up the pressure - I am loving all the responses I am getting from many of you. We shall overcome.
Matt realized that nobody ever "overcame" anything by just singing. He sought media coverage for his one-person campaign, and reported back after another four hours:
I will be on the Leo Gold radio show tomorrow at 11:20 am EST and you can listen on via the web here: http://www.newcapitalshow.com
Then he reported on what the people on his e-mail list had achieved in the afternoon:
More importantly - let me just thank everyone again for the incredible response today. No fewer than 5 members of Congress were personally contacted by the folks on the listserv today.
And then the biggie:
Separately I just heard a few minutes ago from a contact in DC at Sierra Club that Sen. Reid's office and Sen. Waxman office are now (supposedly) behind our "no Pavley no loan money for Detroit" demand. If true, that's a huge step forward. The momentum is gathering. But I won't believe anything until it's a done deal. Keep up the pressure folks. We are moving the mountain. Keep in mind that many of our friends are squishy and all too ready to cave in.
So where are we now? I sent Matt's e-mails to a list that I run, consisting of several hundred environmental law professors. One of them is setting up news coverage, perhaps in Detroit.
But much, much more needs to be done. Can someone post the contact information for members of the relevant committees? If so, I'll edit this post, and perhaps we can really move a mountain here.
Let's green the auto bailout. On Thursday.