Colorado Currents
Protecting your rights
Colorado Currents Summer 2011
We’ve had a busy summer at Clean Water Action in Colorado. Our door-to-door campaign is moving forward to protect the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) a federal grant program that provides funding for parks, open space, and water recreation across Colorado. We’ve knocked on thousands of doors encouraging our supporters (you!) to contact Congressman Cory Gardner to encourage him to support LWCF.
Representative Cory Gardner:
The most anti-environment congressman in Colorado History?
The big news in Colorado is that the U.S. House of Representatives— led
by 4th Congressional District Congressman Cory Gardner — has been
designated the “Most Anti-Environmental Congress in U.S. History” by
pro-environment supporters in the U.S. House. Congressmen Henry
Waxman(CA) and Edward Markey (MA) created the report which analyzes 110
votes in the U.S. House since January 2011.
The report, “Anti-Environment Votes in the 112th Congress,” highlights votes that attempt to block action to address climatechange, undermine air and water protection, erode protections for public lands and coastal areas, and block clean energy initiatives.Some of the worst votes have been outrageous attempts to completely gut the Clean Water Act, a decades old law thatprotects the public’s health across America and in Colorado. Congressman Gardner voted for nearly every single piece of legislation to slash and burn the environment, including the attempt to gut the Clean Water Act.
Saving the Colorado River
Clean Water Fund is very excited to be a part of a great coalition of companies and foundations
that are working to protect the Colorado River
from the source to the sea. The effort, called the “Save the Colorado
River” campaign — www.savethecolorado.org — is led by New Belgium
Brewing of Fort Collins, CO. In addition, the coalition includes the
companies Patagonia, Clif Bar, Teva and National Geographic; foundation
partners include Kenney Brothers Foundation, Environment Foundation, and
Environment Now. Gary Wockner, Clean Water Fund’s Colorado Program
Director serves as the Campaign Coordinator for the Save the Colorado River campaign.
The Great Outdoors Giveaway
Clean Water Action, along with a coalition of Colorado conservation groups, participated in a press conference in late July highlighting the “Great Outdoors Giveaway.” The U.S. House of Representatives is considering an Appropriations bill that would make dramatic cuts to programs that protect America’s land, water, and air.
fracking update:
Rush to Drill Threatens Water
Clean Water Action is actively monitoring the controversial issue of fracking in Colorado. Thousands of Colorado gas wells have been fracked with potentially dangerous chemicals. The EPA and the State of Colorado are both studying these fracked wells for potential pollution problems.
Legislative Round-Up
The State Legislature ended its 2011 session in May 2011. It was a wild four-month ride that saw massive attacks on Colorado’s environment and equally profound defensive actions to protect past policies and legislation. The session was marked by an intense effort by anti-environmental forces to roll back past environmental gains especially in the area of clean energy and climate change legislation. In the end, Coloradans demanded that their legislators protect clean air, clean water, and clean energy
congress &
the environment
Some of the most important issues facing the environment in U.S. Congress this year are efforts to block implementation of, or even reverse, laws protecting public health and natural resources.
Recently the "Dirty Water Caucus" has emerged in the House of Representatives. Members of this caucus introduced and passed a bill in the House that will gut the Clean Water Act. H.R. 2018, the "Dirty Water" bill is nothing short of a temper tantrum in writing. In addition to H.R. 201, H.R. 910 will loosen Global Warming protections and the dozens of riders and amendments attached to various spending bills will severely limit our ability to protect our environment and the health of our communities.
To help you understand what these bills and amendments mean for our environment and our health, Clean Water Action has analyzed the votes on 12 key bills - 10 from the H.R.1 debate in the winter as well as H.R. 2018 and H.R. 910 this summer.
water is fundamental
Dirty water kills. Dirty water kills fish in our rivers and streams. Dirty water can sicken people, killing the most vulnerable…the young, the old or those with other illnesses. And dirty water kills jobs in fishing, tourism and other recreational businesses…multi-billion dollar industries in the US.
It seems like some legislators have forgotten how important clean water is, and the sorry state of our nation’s water resources forty years ago that led to passage of the Clean Water Act.
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