2. CLIMATE: Two EPA lawyers make passionate, personal pitch for carbon fees (Greenwire, 05/08/2008)

Daniel Cusick, Greenwire reporter

Jeopardizing a combined 42 years of U.S. EPA employment is not what Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel had in mind when they published an open letter criticizing one of Congress' leading strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

But as recently as last night, the two career attorneys in EPA's regional office in San Francisco were still awaiting the fallout of their May 4 missive, which implores Congress to eschew cap-and-trade programs for carbon dioxide in favor of "carbon fees" that would be imposed on all purchases of fossil fuel for energy.

The lawyers, who are married and have three children, also asked Congress to ban the permitting of all new coal-fired power plants that would not be equipped with proven carbon capture and sequestration technology, a position likely to draw ire from Bush administration officials and industry groups.

Yet Williams, 55, and Zabel, 57, say they felt compelled to write the letter, not as EPA employees whose tenures date to the Reagan administration but as "citizens and parents" concerned about leaving a healthy planet to their children, who range from age 11 to 21.

"There are a lot of people out there engaging in this dialogue, and we thought we should be one more voice," Zabel said last night in a phone interview about the letter, which received wide distribution by environmental advocates via e-mail yesterday and appears on the couple's Web site, carbonfees.org.

"It was a personal decision," Zabel added, "out of concern not just for our children, but for everybody's children."

Response from senior EPA officials has been tempered, in part because the letter was vetted in both San Francisco and Washington before its release. The couple said they began drafting the letter last summer and received approval to distribute it after a "very lengthy and detailed process."

Congress must 'lead the way'

Williams and Zabel said they were allowed to proceed as long as the letter made clear the authors' views were personal and did not represent the position of EPA. Nevertheless, the couple acknowledged that the letter will likely draw greater attention since its authors are career agency lawyers.

Cathy Milbourn, a spokeswoman at EPA headquarters in Washington, said the couple are within their rights to air their personal views to Congress about environmental issues. "We all have the freedom to write to our elected representatives to express our personal views," Milbourn said in an e-mail. "In the open letter to Congress the two EPA Region 9 employees affirm they are writing as citizens and not in their official agency capacity."

Williams, who will mark 20 years at EPA this month, said the letter is not meant to upbraid her EPA bosses, to whom she feels a strong loyalty. Rather, she said, the couple felt compelled to write given their special knowledge about cap-and-trade programs and also because of their deeply held convictions about the risks of moving too slowly to reduce CO2 emissions.

The letter, which runs three pages with an additional four pages of references, reflects both priorities. While organized in thesis form, with subheadings pointing to "Defects in Cap-and-Trade" and "Why Carbon Fees are the Winning Solution," the letter also strikes a more sweeping, personal chord.

"We recognize that new fees are not wildly popular at this point in history," the letter concludes. "We can only succeed if you are able to educate people to the point where they understand that these are fees on a material that threatens the future of our children and grandchildren, and that such fees will help 'fuel' innovation, a sustainable business boom and a livable planet, by kick-starting the kind of World War II-type effort we need to make the necessary changes in time.

"Here you need to make the case and lead the way," the couple tells Congress. "Everything that we care about depends on your success."

Reactions

While the letter has yet to receive much response on Capitol Hill, others are weighing in at the couple's Web site.

James Handley, who refers to himself as a former EPA enforcement attorney and volunteer for the Carbon Tax Center, posted a comment praising the couple for "courageously speaking out" about the drawbacks of CO2 regulatory programs that rely on cap-and-trade provisions.

"Cumbersome 'linear' solutions (regulations or cap-and-trade) won't work quickly or broadly enough if they work at all," Handley wrote.

Another reader, David Collins, also thanked the couple for openly expressing their views on cap-and-trade approaches versus carbon fees, adding, "And please pass my thanks to the EPA management who OK'd your speaking out."

Click here to view the letter.

Back to Public index page