Thank you. This has really been an inspiring and very motivating day. I have been to a number of the events and you should know, and I hope particularly the young people who are here know, that really you’re part of history today; you’re part of a very historic occasion. Across the country, as you know, about 1400 of these events are taking place and people are mobilizing at the grassroots to show and to say that very simply, we will not take more of global warming. We will not tolerate emissions. We will not only be angry, but we will act on it. And that’s a very, very important statement because a lot of the politicians, a lot of public officials feel that global warming is just a figment of someone’s imagination. That politically it’s sort of a fringe issue; that it has no real traction in the political process and that the environmentalist’s don’t know how to get things done politically.
I’m here to tell you that as someone in political life, someone who is an elected official, you are part of a growing, powerful movement that will change the face of America, and it will help save the planet. You may think I am exaggerating when I put it that way, but I truly believe there is no more important cause to the future of this nation and the world than CO2 emissions, pollution generally, environmental causes, but this one in particular because it really threatens our way of life, our planet, not just the quality of life, but the ability to live as we think human beings should live.
So let me talk first about the various fronts of the battle. This is one of them - the streets, the playgrounds, the places where people are gathering today - the Green in New Haven where I was, the park in Hamden, the library in New Canaan, the Town Hall in Greenwich and across the country on peaks, on shores. That’s one front, the popular front.
We are also fighting in courts. We have a number of lawsuits. One of them has just been decided by the United States Supreme Court that basically involves not only the issue of standing, we said the states have standing because we are damaged by global warming to assert our right in court, but furthermore, the administration is breaking the law. The EPA is violating the clean air act by failing to classify CO2 as a pollutant; mercury is a pollutant, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide. We’re fighting those pollutants as well and as a matter of fact, just as a footnote and lawyers always have footnotes.
In a 9-0 decision on that same day the Supreme Court decided in another hugely important case when it said that the administration had also broken the law by diluting and eviscerating the clean air act as it applies to nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide under the new source review standards and if it were not for the incredible magnitude of the Supreme Court decision on global warming that decision on new source review would have made the headlines.
We’re fighting on that front in court and we’re having success. The court essentially says you look at there are a few pages of this, the opinion, that there really is powerful, credible scientific evidence to show that CO2 causes global warming and global warming endangers people’s lives. You may think that’s a given, that ought to be obvious to everyone. But of course, the Bush administration’s defense was that there wasn’t enough evidence and that the EPA was entitled to deference in deciding that global warming is not a problem and the court, in effect, gave the EPA no choice, but to issue regulations that govern CO2 emissions.
But I'm a realist and I know this administration will delay. And so we need to keep the pressure up in the courts. Connecticut, in a case called Connecticut versus AET - American Electric Power is in the courts against the power companies. Remember the Supreme Court’s decision concerned the states and environmental groups versus the EPA. This one is against the power companies. They also involve the states. I argued it recently in front of the New York court - the Federal Court of Appeals in the 2nd Circuit. This Supreme Court opinion gives us additional ammunition in that front.
And of course, right now, in Vermont it’s automobile emissions standards are in litigation under challenge by the automobile manufacturers. This battle will continue. We haven’t won it by any means in the courts and, of course, it’s continuing in the legislature.
The legislature, our national legislature, our state legislature, the Congress is considering the Safe Climate Act. We need to mobilize opinion in support of that kind of additional legislation because we simply cannot wait for the Administration to obey the law. It will essentially delay.
We need to keep the momentum going and that brings me back to today. Today is hugely important because it is really a step in that battle: in mobilizing opinion, sending a message and making sure that politicians, columnists, journalists, everyone in any position to do something about this problem understands that people are engaged and involved and informed.
Let me say just finally that I am very proud of the young people who are involved today. I hope that this event is simply a step for them. That they will take today’s event and not only remember it, but use it as a lesson because people can make a difference. One person can make a difference and this kind of action at the grassroots level certainly can make a difference. So today I think we’re all learning. I hope that the ones who will learn the most are the people who are the elected representatives who will take from today the important lesson that people care. They know to care. They will care. They are going to act on that caring. They care about the world we leave behind, the world in which we live and the legacy of what we leave behind.
There is the Margaret Mead quote about “A small group of determined, committed people make a difference and nothing else ever has.” That’s a lesson we can all take from this battle because a small group of determined, committed people are making a difference. It is absolutely essential that in this room and outside it that people continue this fight. So thank you for having me today. I apologize that I have to go to another event. Forgive me. But maybe we will do it again.
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