Open Letters to Our Leaders

Dr. Alan Foutz

President

Colorado Farm Bureau

Re: Recent testimony on endangered species conservation

Dear Dr. Foutz,

As a Colorado citizen who is concerned about our environment and also about the well being of our economy, I thank you for your well balanced testimony that you recently gave at the Senate Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Water. Your July 13 testimony reaffirms my belief that farmers and wildlife can coexist, sometimes to the benefit of both. I appreciate your willingness to recognize that it is important to allow scientific researchers to discern the truth about a species' status. I also sympathize with your organizations pragmatic desire to contribute help to where it is actually needed.

The Endangered Species Act is a difficult pill for many to swallow. Now 5-year reviews are being forced through the legal process in many states, causing many species to recently be removed from the list due to their recovery. I suspect that we will see more such positive signs that species are actually benefiting from the ESA and supporting initiatives like the mountain plover protection program that your members undertook.

Again, I thank you for your balanced, pragmatic commentary on the issue of environmental conservation and I look forward to reading more about progressive business organizations like yours.

Sincerely,

Dear [DeGette (D-CO), Allard (R-CO), Salazar (D-CO)]

It is my understanding that the Congressional negotiators have decided upon a version of the so-called landmark energy legislation that omits language requiring reductions in petroleum usage and requirements for alternative energy production. The bill also includes billions of dollars of tax breaks and incentives for oil companies.

How can this bill be either common sense or what the American people want?

How is it that during record profit years for oil companies and abnormally high prices for gasoline at the pump, the US consumer is now being told to finance more tax breaks for oil companies to further increase their profits?

How can we possibly become energy self-sufficient without the promotion of sustainable fuel sources and the recognition that petroleum is a finite resource?

I'm am writing you to request an explanation of how the energy bill promotes an agenda that serves the people of Colorado. It seems that if you support this bill, you are falling back on what the people of our great state want: clean air, lower fuel prices, and better government efficiency.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Response from Rep. DeGette

Dear _______:

Thank you for contacting me about H.R. 6, the Energy Policy Act of 2005. I appreciate the opportunity to learn your views and share mine.

I voted against this legislation when it came before the House of Representatives because it offers billons of dollars in subsidies to the oil & gas, electric, and nuclear industries, yet does little to incentivize the development of alternative and renewable energy. With soaring gas prices, I believe our nation must have a comprehensive national energy policy that focuses on reducing our consumption of oil, increasing our efficiency, and protecting our national security. Unfortunately, the solutions offered by this bill will not decrease our dependence on fossil fuels or foreign cartels.

As a member of the Energy & Commerce committee, I sponsored amendments to this bill that would have increased the use of renewable energy, enhanced the fuel economy of our automobiles, and provide more incentives for energy efficiency. Unfortunately, these amendments were all defeated. You can be assured that I will continue to be a voice for a common sense energy strategy that involves the development of renewable technologies and efficient energy usage, instead of the current proposals which rely on unsustainable and environmentally damaging resources.

Again, thank you for letting me know your views. Please feel free to visit my website at www.house.gov/degette for further information. There you can sign up for my e-newsletter to stay up-to-date on current events on Capitol Hill. I look forward to our continued communication.

Dear Representative DeGette,

Please oppose the CAFTA treaty because it violates state and local government rights to set local policy and it does not promote the conscientious use of environment and labor resources.

CAFTA is an example of our executive branch failing to learn from past mistakes. NAFTA allows foreign interests to own property in the United States and then to sue local and state governments if those government attempt to enforce or impose any laws that potentially reduce the value of the property, whether for social welfare or environmental reasons. The same holds true under CAFTA. Under NAFTA and the proposed CAFTA, US companies are also allowed to go into treaty countries and ignore environmental and labor laws with impunity.

The US must set the standard for social and environmental stewardship around the globe. Local and state governments must be allowed to apply accepted policy in their boundaries without interference from foreign interests who are protected by treaty. NAFTA failed to meet the high standards to which we should be held. CAFTA will do the same.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Response from Rep. DeGette:

Dear Mr. _______:

Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition to the United States-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). I am pleased to learn your views on this issue and appreciate the opportunity to share mine.

You will be pleased to learn that I plan on opposing CAFTA should it come to the House floor for a vote in its current form. While I believe that free and fair trade is good for the U.S. economy and beneficial to the rest of the world, I also believe that there are certain precautions that need to be taken to ensure that free trade agreements do not undermine other principles that our nation holds dear, such as environmental protections, core labor standards and human rights. Unfortunately, the Administration failed to take these considerations into account when negotiating CAFTA. I am also concerned with a provision included in CAFTA that would allow corporations to sue member countries for having laws that interfere with corporate profits. Such suits could potentially discourage member governments from making or enforcing laws to protect public safety, the environm! ent or vulnerable economic sectors.

Again, thank you for letting me know your views. Please feel free to visit my website at www.house.gov/degette for further information. There you can sign up for my e-newsletter to stay up-to-date on current events on Capitol Hill. I look forward to our continued communication.

Dear Representative DeGette,

It has come to my attention that Rep. Richard Pombo recently appeared on a Showtime entertainment show with the purpose of bashing the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The ESA is used to protect our natural resources, surely something in which every truly patriotic American believes.

I'm asking you to convey to Rep. Pombo that Colorado voters don't appreciate his glib handling of landmark environmentatl protection legislation. The ESA helps not only endangered species, but also communities who can take pride, and sometimes reap economic rewards, from protecting the natural world around us.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Dear Senator/Representative,

As your constituent, I strongly urge you to vote against the forthcoming budget reconciliation package if it allows oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Using the budget process to destroy this pristine wilderness is an unacceptable sneak attack on our nation'swildlife.

Drilling in the Arctic Refuge is not a path to energy independence or lower prices at the pump. The United States Geological Survey estimates that the Refuge has less than a single year's supply of oil that would not reach the market for at least 10 years. Meanwhile, the harm to wildlife and to our greatest wildlife refuge would be irreparable. We need to save national treasures like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for future generations.

Sincerely,

Dear Mr. Raymond,

Our country remains overly dependent on oil, which has serious consequences ranging from rising gasoline prices that burden every American to global warming that threatens current and future generations. This addiction to oil represents a failed energy strategy, one that your company not only supports but has helped to develop. I am most disturbed by:

ExxonMobil's active support of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; ExxonMobil's efforts to block meaningful action to cut global warming pollution and its funding of junk science to hide the real facts about global warming; ExxonMobil's conscious decision to forgo investment in clean energy solutions - despite your record profits at a time of rising gasoline prices; ExxonMobil's failure to pay all of the punitive damages awarded to fishermen and others injured by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. ExxonMobil represents yesterday's energy policy; I would rather spend my money and time moving forward, not backward. Therefore, I will not purchase ExxonMobil's gas or products, invest in ExxonMobil stock, or work for the company.

Sincerely,

Dear editor,

Laura Schneberger's column, "Ranchers: The Endangered Species" is puresensationalism. She cites figures of several hundred calves and cows beingkilled by reintroduced wolves without mentioning that the rate of such cattlekilled is typically less than 0.01% of a herd per year. Surely accidentaldeath and illness must kill a similar amount of animals. In the continentalUnited States there is not one report of a wolf attack on a human in livingmemory, while deer kill approximately 100 people a year in roadway fatalitiesand household dogs kill approximately 10 people a year. Rumors of phantomwolves following a family on a dark night don't compare.

The real story is that ranchers who are granted grazing rights on public landsare receiving a federal subsidy to feed their cattle. There are even numerousstate and private reimbursement plans that have paid out thousands of dollarsto ranchers who have had livestock killed by reintroduced wolves. Rancherswho are crying about 0.01% of their stock killed by wolves are mistakingwolves for scapegoats and ignoring the fact that international competition andchanging business practices are the real culprits driving them out ofbusiness.

Compared with public subsidies of failing businesses, I'd prefer to see arancher's private lands subdivided and our public lands restored to theirnatural state any day.

Sincerely,

Hi folks,

I think you all know that I'm pretty political... heck... I'm POSITIVE that agerbil would be a better President than W. Usually, I try to reign in thepolitical emails to save you from the flood.

However, there have been two attacks on the Endangered Species Act this year,the second more severe than the first. The misnamed Threatened and EndangeredSpecies Recovery Act of 2005, recently introduced by Richard Pombo (R-CA),seeks to bury the ESA in paperwork, extend the process for establishingconservation measures, and foil environmental organizations by increasingtheir legal expenses. It turns out that one leaked version of his bill wouldalso rescind the ESA... remove it from the books... in 2015.

I believe I read recently that only two species that received protection underthe ESA have gone extinct. Thousands more have been stabilized and thousands(millions?) of acres of federal land have been protected under the ESA'spower. The Bush administration has already pushed through a law that allowsthe US Customs to ignore the ESA (and all other law) near the borders. Nowthey are also trying to eliminate the influence of the ESA on military bases,possibly through executive order.

I urge you to write your congress people and senators to tell them to protect,and possibly reinforce, the ESA. If you believe as I do, that the land andspecies around us comprise some of our greatest national resources, then youcannot ignore this attack on our national legacy by the Right. By the way, aneffective site for writing your congress people is http://www.congress.org . Ignore the ad, type in your zip, then write your note.

Thanks for your time! I hope you are all well.