Dear Shaded Viewers,
What do you think of this?
President Obama just dropped us like a hot potato.
It happened on Friday, without warning, when the President cozied up
to America's biggest polluters and killed life-saving ozone smog
rules that his EPA has been working on diligently for years.
What stings almost as badly as the smog is this: the White House
reached into the George W. Bush playbook by delivering this slap in
the face on the eve of a holiday weekend — clearly hoping that all
would be forgotten by Tuesday morning.
Sorry, Mr. President. That's not going to happen.
For one thing, the President's pro-polluter stance is
getting to be a bad habit. In the last month alone, the Obama
Administration has given Shell tentative approval to drill off the
coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge … flashed a preliminary
green light for the disastrous Keystone XL tar sands pipeline … and
now sided with corporate interests over every American who needs to
breathe.
Where is the courageous leader who reined in Big Oil in the wake
of the Deepwater Horizon disaster … who stood up to automakers and
demanded tougher gas mileage goals … who dared to champion clean
energy and high speed rail?
That inspirational President is in hiding, under siege by
Congressional Republicans and the American Petroleum Institute.
Clearly, his political advisors decided he had better curry favor with
the fossil fuel barons by throwing us overboard. We get it.
But we don't have to take it. Listen, no one likes being
dumped. But that's politics, my friend. Getting hit is just part
of the deal. What separates the winners from the losers is how you
fight back after you're knocked down.
And we ARE going to fight back — hard and fast. Why? Because
the White House has obviously calculated that we will sit by quietly
and take it … that there is little or no political price to pay for
stabbing the environment in the back.
And they have absolutely no reason to stop selling out our
family's health and natural heritage to big polluters until they
feel our outrage and anger.
I urge you to pick up the phone right now and give President
Obama a piece of your mind.
Call the White House comment line at: 202-456-1111.
Tell the President you're shocked at his decision to
reject new standards for ozone smog. Tell him to defend the Clean Air
Act against the latest attacks by House Republicans during his jobs
speech on Thursday night. And urge him to show leadership once again
by rejecting the Keystone XL tars sands pipeline, which could doom any
hope for the clean energy future he promised us.
If you don't get through the first time, call again! If
the lines are jammed it means that tens of thousands of us are making
our collective voices heard — and that the White House is feeling the
heat.
Once you get through, please reply to this email letting me
know, so we can track the success of this effort.
Making a phone call is not too much to ask. Over the last
several weeks, more than 1,000 citizens — including scientists,
professors and ranchers — were arrested when they staged a peaceful
protest against the tar sands pipeline outside the White House.
I'm not asking you to get arrested. I am urging you to build on
the momentum and media attention they created — to keep the pressure
on the President to do the right thing — by calling the White House
until you are heard.
Don't let the President take you for granted. Speak your mind
right now … or you can surely expect worse to come.
Sincerely,
Frances
Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council
P.S. NRDC will be giving the White House a piece of our own mind this
week — in court! We will immediately resume our lawsuit to overturn
the illegal, Bush-era ozone pollution standards that President Obama
is now defending. If he is not willing to uphold the law and stand up
to big polluters, then we will not hesitate to make him do it. And we
will hold his feet to the fire, as we've done with every
President of both parties for the past 40 years. If you want to help
us wage and win this landmark fight for our right to breathe clean
air, please make an online donation today.
