Offering Testimony on the Decline of the EpA

Last week, a friend reminded me that the public hearing for the EpA’s Endangerment Finding was coming up and there was still time to speak. I had written about this just a month back but registration wasn’t open then and I almost forgot. But in the nick of time I signed up and was issued a slot along with hundreds of other organizational representatives and concerned citizens. In fact, there were so many interested in speaking that the testimonies started Tuesday morning and went all the way until Friday, with all testimonies being limited to 2.5 minutes max (strictly enforced!).

I joined for my two hour block Wednesday morning (and Bart Everson joined the following day) and we both presented arguments to not repeal the Endangerment Finding. I’ll share those both below in a moment, but I’ll admit, I heard far more powerful statements than my own. I was truly awed by the passion of the climate scientists, nurses, clean air advocates, ministers, and many others who spoke. The best and most hopeful part was that in the two hours I listened, not one person spoke in support of repealing the Endangerment Finding. That doesn’t mean EpA won’t do away with it anyway (and there are already legal efforts proceeding to fight the basis for their action) but for a moment it made me feel less alone.

One presenter from California Interfaith Power & Light went and reminded the EpA representatives listening that “we are of the Earth” Even I didn’t go that route, trying to speak in language EPA might get through their heads. Instead, I quoted, with tongue firmly in cheek, a businessman I hope all of them recognized and made it about the economy, stupid, which is the stated focus of nearly all of the Trump Administration’s choices. Bart framed his comment around climate change being an existential issue, particularly for the Gulf Coast, which could be devastated if we don’t stabilize the climate soon. Anyway, enough context, below are my and Bart’s comments (well, with a bit more context there). And while it’s too late for you to speak publicly, it’s not too late for you to write a comment. The comment period is open until September 22nd. I strongly encourage you to write a comment here.

Public Comment by Erik Assadourian

I’m Erik Assadourian, the Director of the Gaian Way and I’d like to start with a quote from a prominent business leader: “Business is business! And business must grow regardless of crummies in tummies, you know.”

Most of you will recognize that infamous business mantra, spoken by Dr. Seuss’s The Onceler. This is a perfect representation of the short-termism embedded in the EPA’s proposal to stop regulating climate change and its detrimental effects on health and well-being.

It is an act of extreme naivety. Business, and the continued success of America’s economy depends on climate stability; it requires the coasts to remain unflooded; the woodlands to remain unburned; and the agricultural lands to remain productive. But as we destabilize the climate, the future of the U.S. and the world are imperiled.

The Club of Rome revealed this reality over 50 years ago with The Limits to Growth. James Hansen and thousands of climate scientists since have revealed that one of the most significant limits to Earth’s ability to provide for human society is the global carbon sink Earth’s atmosphere and oceans provide.

Denying reality—and intentionally creating research that cherry-picks the science to justify the removal of climate considerations from the responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency is partisan politics at its worst. Republicans and Democrats will be equally affected by the horrors that uncontrolled climate change will bring.

To undermine the Endangerment Finding is a breach of government responsibility, one that will not lead to an improved future for even special interests like energy producers and car companies. This is true even in the short-term as in the aftermath of this repeal, states will inevitably create new and confusing state-wide vehicle CO2 emissions rules increasing businesses’ costs and further stifling innovation.

And in the long-term, if America’s agricultural lands, forests, coasts, and cities are crippled by climate effects, so too will America’s economy be crippled. I fear that just like the Onceler, those who supported this action will “throughout the years, while their buildings have fallen apart, they’ll worry about it with all their heart.” But by then, it will be far too late. Thus I urge the EPA to not go down this foolish road and uphold the Endangerment Finding.

Contextualizing Bart’s Comment

From Bart: Everyone knows what a “senior moment” is, but have you ever heard of someone having a “Katrina moment”? I’m old enough to have both, and that’s what happened on Thursday. To be fair, it’s not that I forgot that I’d signed up to make a public comment to the EPA, but I did the time-zone conversion wrong. If the government hadn’t sent me a friendly reminder via text message, I might have missed my slot.

I wasn’t particularly nervous about speaking to the EPA, I’ve addressed governmental panels before, and in this case I had my script all written out. Just 250 words, two and a half minutes, no sweat.

What I didn’t anticipate was how choked up I got. As soon as I started speaking about the floods of 2005, my eyes welled up with tears, making it hard to read my script, and my throat seemed to close up, making it hard to speak. But I got through it all right.

Normally I might have been embarrassed about such a public display of emotion, but honestly I was glad for it. I heard a lot of other comments from a lot of other people, all universally urging the EPA to retain the Endangerment Finding and do their job; they all made lots of really powerful, logical, insightful points, backed with evidence. But at this point, I wonder if logic or evidence has anything to do with it. Perhaps the only thing that will sway the decision-makers is a sense of moral shame. If seeing a grown man cry engendered a little shame in their hearts, so much the better, I suppose.

Public Comment by Bart Everson

Thank you for this chance to speak. My name is Bart Everson. I’m representing the Greater New Orleans Interfaith Climate Coalition, a nonpartisan, grassroots, volunteer-driven network of churches and mosques and synagogues and temples and just plain people who hold this Living Earth as sacred. As we approach the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I don’t need to remind you that the Greater New Orleans area is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather and rising sea levels, both of which are associated with climate change.

While there are multiple factors behind the changing climate, a primary driver is the emission of greenhouse gases from our power plants, agricultural practices, vehicles and transportation, landfills, and so on. To be blunt, the continued emission of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane poses an existential threat to our region of south Louisiana and indeed the entire Gulf Coast. I’m not a legal expert, but I believe that’s what the Endangerment Finding of 2009 is all about. And now y’all want to repeal it? In our view, the Environmental Protection Agency wasn’t doing enough to regulate emissions in the first place, and now y’all are talking about doing less? We find that outrageous, and I stand before you angry, discouraged, and heartbroken. On a scale of one to ten, our opposition to this move is one thousand. Locally, we’re doing our part to encourage the resilience of our communities, to consume less, to reduce our footprint. We need you to do your part. Thank you.

---

Thanks for reading these two comments, now please go out and write your own! And if you’d like, add them to the comments below this essay as well for all to read!

Go with Gaia,

Erik and Bart