LETTERS: STACKED DECK ON CLIMATE TREATY

To the editor:

Today the Environmental Protection Agency will be holding a forum in Kansas City on "Climate Change: What Does It Mean for the Midwest?" This forum represents another step by the administration to implement a dangerous United Nations global climate treaty, known as the Kyoto Protocol, over the nearly unanimous objection of Congress. This treaty could result in the loss of over 60,000 jobs in Missouri alone and cause energy prices to rise by 80 percent. The Missouri Farm Bureau has estimated this treaty could reduce Missouri farm income by as much as 50 percent, all the while exempting our global competitors like Brazil and China from compliance. Despite congressional opposition to this treaty, the administration continues to pursue its implementation through back-door tactics.

The Kansas City meeting appears to be another attempt by the EPA to lobby in support of this dangerous treaty, and the agency may be in violation of federal law. Last year during debate on legislation to fund the EPA, congress established a sense of balance that the EPA must follow when holding such meetings. As my colleague, Congressman David Obey, D-Wis., stated: "The agency is expected to provide education, not advocacy. ... If the agency crosses the line into advocacy, it does so at its own peril." Despite the clear message of Congress, the EPA seems to have stacked the forum agenda with speakers who advocate the administration's views. In fact, it was only after I personally contacted the EPA that the agency added the Missouri Coalition on Global Climatic Change to the program. While this is certainly a step in the right direction, the EPA has not come close to reaching the concept of balance.

The Kyoto Protocol is based on unsound, unproven science that could devastate our economy, our military and our position in the world. Yet the EPA continues to turn a deaf ear to people who do not agree with its point of view. Let us hope the agency will begin to obey the law and the administration will listen carefully to the views of all Americans on this issue. You can be sure I will continue fighting in Congress to make sure the voices of rural Americans are heard.

JO ANN EMERSON, Member of Congress

8th District

Cape Girardeau