Yesterday I wrote a diary about an article that appeared in the Houston Chronicle in which Sen. John Cornyn said that he is preparing legislation to combat climate change. As I discussed in that diary, Cornyn’s proposal falls well short of the action necessary to combat climate change. After posting that diary and having a brief, but fruitful, conversation in the comment section, I wanted to make sure that the Senator (or more likely a staffer of his) knew that, so I sent the following email to the Senator’s office, and I would urge each of you to send something similar to your Senators.
Senator Cornyn,
Yesterday I saw an article in the Houston Chronicle in which you claimed to be preparing legislation to combat climate change. While I think that it is admirable that you have joined the rest of modern society in acknowledging that climate change is both real and a danger to our society, the proposed legislation that is discussed in that article is woefully inadequate to meet the challenges we face in combating climate change.
You are quoted as saying, "There is a growing consensus the days of ignoring this issue are over. If we all agree that reducing emissions is important I think we have a better way of approaching that than the Green New Deal."
There has been a scientific consensus on this issue for decades. Your political party is the primary reason that our nation hasn't taken the consequential and effective actions necessary to combat this. So please do not condescend to us by talking about how there is now a "growing consensus".
Your proposed legislation seeks to expand federal funding for carbon capture technology, but, and this is vital, your legislation seemingly ignores cutting greenhouse gas emissions. This sounds nice in theory, but carbon capture technology, at best, can be used as a piece of the puzzle in our fight against climate change. Carbon capture technology is just not a silver bullet, not at this stage, and almost certainly not at any stage. Any realistic attempts to combat climate change MUST include cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
You then go on to say, "We can do this without passing new taxes or huge new job killing regulations." This is just a repetition of old climate denier talking points about why we should not take action against climate change because it might incur costs.
First, taxes and regulations simply are not the most evil things in existence. They are the price of doing business and being a member of our society. I for one do not want to live in some libertarian fantasy land where there are no taxes and no regulations. That would truly be a cruel and heartless world.
Second, combating climate change will take a monumental effort by all Americans. We have to treat this effort as the moon landing of our time. That is how big this is. While you should not summarily take any potential solution off the table, you must also be honest with our fellow Texans and Americans about the costs and benefits of those potential solutions. Summarily labeling entire potential methods of combating climate change as off limits because they might require "new taxes" or "job killing regulations" is ludicrous, and shows that whoever is making that statement is not actually concerned with effectively combating climate change.
We desperately need leaders who take this issue seriously and who propose scientifically based solutions, and in this regard, both your prior record in office, and your proposed legislation comes up well short.
But, if you are actually serious about combating climate change, and as a constituent I sincerely hope you are, then I would personally recommend looking up the work of both Michael E. Mann and Katherine Hayhoe. Both are world-renowned experts in the field of climate science, and they are exactly the type of folks we need leading the discussion about how to effectively combat climate change.
Sincerely,
Carl Blair