Friends of the Earth head Erich Pica told the National Journal he believed that environmentalists needed to be on guard against making too many concessions to win Senate approval of a climate change bill. Pica declared: "We're giving away a lot. And we're not even getting the carbon dioxide reductions we need to stop global warming."
Pica said his group had opposed the House-passed bill because "the compromises that are being cut aren't taking us into the future." He criticized support in the bill for coal and other fossil fuels, as well as nuclear generation, and called on environmentalists to push forward an agenda of "soft energy," namely renewables, efficiency, and decentralized power. Pica claimed that compromise could "mean sacrificing more communities in Appalachia to mountain-top removal mining" and other environmental harm, and he warned environmentalists to avoid joining in a "deal-making frenzy" and losing sight of its climate change goals. Pica said environmentalists needed to be willing to declare "a pox on Congress's house. You can't get what we want. We're going to ride on EPA for a while and allow the political pressure to build."
- National Journal, Oct. 24.
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