Let’s hope the lobbyists are right

Editor, The Times

Congress made a choice [“Greed, cowardice kill climate action,” Opinion, July 27]. On one side of the debate, all of the world’s scientists. On the other side, all of the world’s oil lobbyists. The oil lobbyists have much more money than the scientists. I suppose seeing with whom Congress sided in the end shouldn’t have been a surprise.

Before these past few days, I had never before so hoped what I hope for now —that the lobbyists are right. I am rooting for them to have made the right call: that all of the world’s scientists are secretly plotting to make Al Gore a billionaire. But really, of those two groups — those who scour the world for hard data, and those who work to make a profit for the oil companies — who do you think is really telling it like it is?

My only hope for sanity is that it may not be too late. Until we are permanently behind China in creating the clean-energy products and economy of the future; until the ice sheets covering Greenland have fully melted and swamped our Seattle ports; until we have actually burned all the oil in the earth, there is always a chance that a more enlightened Congress in some near future may take a principled stand and fight for what they know is right.

— Barry Boone, Seattle

Politicization of climate issue

It is good to hear from Paul Krugman that “greed and cowardice” will trump abject stupidity by Nobel laureates unable or unwilling to recognize the overwhelming politicization of the climate issue. They are saving our country, at least for now, from one more financial disaster. (I only hope Krugman will forgive my adopting his style!)

— Jared Mayes, North Bend

We need carbon to come with a high price

Summer in Seattle is pleasant, but elsewhere the heat has been record-breaking, the warmest first six months in recorded history. Sadly, not hot enough for our senators to consider climate and energy legislation. Failure to get serious about reducing carbon use (burning coal, oil and gas) means that our elected officials fear loss of campaign funds from the energy giants more than they fear for the livability of the planet.

What we need is a straightforward bill that puts a high fee on carbon at the source, that is collected through the IRS, and that returns the billions collected equally to each citizen. This is the proposal of the Citizens Climate Lobby. It would send a clear price signal that would spur much more investment in clean, renewable fuels, and it would put money in people’s pockets that could go for more efficient appliances, cars that get better mileage and weatherization improvements.

— Andrea Faste, Citizens Climate Lobby, Seattle

The short attention span of Americans

The flow of oil has finally abated, but the financial and environmental impact of the disaster will still be felt for months, potentially even years down the road.

And yet Americans seems to have the shortest memories possible. Outraged at the oil-spill footage, citizens all over the country have expressed disgust at the disaster and agreed that legislation is need to cut our dependence on foreign oil.

But barely is the disaster contained and already senators in Washington, D.C., get away with not addressing much-needed clean energy and climate policy. It seems like the big oil and coal companies with their army of lobbyists have once again won the battle. So America will continue to buy oil overseas to the tune of $1 billion a day, while other countries like China will take the lead on clean-energy technology and all the benefits that come with that — like jobs!

Are we really going to have a few senators, influenced by their big polluters’ donations, let our country dictate how we should deal with energy policy going forward?

I hope the Senate will not give up and use every chance possible to address a true clean-energy and climate reform, investing in clean-energy resources, and supporting the EPA as it moves to protect Americans by cracking down on polluters.

— Sylvia Perek, Seattle