Another Go To Heller Letter...

I sign a few online petitions and have sent some letters to my elected representatives to make clear that we need to fix things – and I want them to do the right thing. U.S. Senator Dean Heller has replied to me on a number of occasions – but not how I would hope. In fact, I now call his correspondence “Go to Heller” letters. They always ramble for a while, and then somewhere towards the bottom of the letter I realize I've been told to go to hell – in the most obscure way possible.

Here's an example:

You're welcome to read the whole letter, but what is important is the highlighted lines; “Public law 93-523, the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), was enacted in 1974 to ensure that the American public is provided with safe drinking water. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to set standards for the quality of drinking water and oversee all entities that implement these standards.”

Mr. Heller wants us to believe that everything is already taken care of. Well... in a way, it is. The 2005 Energy Bill gave the fracking industry a free ride to pollute all they want – and Senator Heller knows this. Dick Cheney's 2005 Energy bill (the Haliburton Bill) exempted fracking fluids from the Safe Drinking Water Act... That's right, the worst polluters don't have to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act. The regulations are so lax that I wouldn't be surprised if we someday find out that this is how some of these companies are getting rid of their toxic waste. (Think about it; why do they need radioactive materials in fracking fluid? They obviously don't.)

And the EPA sure looks like it's been dragging its feet for years at crafting fracking standards. The EPA is conducting a study to be published in 2014. And then there will be a review. And then there will be other delays. Hey wait a minute; shouldn't the EPA err on the safe side until the study comes out? Not when there's big money involved.

We didn't vote for that. We didn't write our “elected representatives” and ask for this. Americans have died from this type of pollution. And many Americans are sick. Exempting the dirtiest polluters from regulation is as far from common sense as our “leaders” can get.

The 2005 Energy Bill also exempted fracking fluids from the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). And there is no way U.S. Senator Dean Heller could not have known. He's just hoping we don't know. 

Dean Heller lies.

Moreover; Senator Heller voted to bar the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases – and he voted no on eliminating subsides and tax breaks for fossil fuels. Click here for more.

In my “Go to Heller” letter, Senator Heller stated; “I understand the importance of federal policies that promote a clean and healthy environment.” And in the next paragraph, he lies to us; claiming that federal policies already exist that are adequate (with the exemptions he didn't mention).

So, why would Senator Heller lie to us like that? Could it be the over $200,000 in “campaign contributions” he received from the oil and gas industry. Apparently, the fix is in.

Of course, Senator Heller isn't the only one. The Obama administration backed off on a damning scientific report that showed that fracking is poisoning groundwater. In case you hadn't noticed, this is what is known as a “cover-up.” (In case you don't remember, it was the cover-up of the Watergate break-in the led to President Nixon's downfall. But don't expect that to happen here, since this cover-up protects the oligarchy.)

This is what a failed democracy looks like. Our “elected representatives” can't make rational decisions. And things will just get worse until we fix them. Don't expect the likes of Dean Heller to do it for us. They're just making too much money.

I wouldn't be surprised if Dean Heller owns stock in fossil fuel companies too. (If you know about Dean Heller's investments, please leave a comment.)

What makes this so mind bendingly crazy is that we have the technology to do better. Why on Earth would we want to poison our drinking water with fracking fluids and methane so that we can pollute our air and change our climate?

And the story just gets more insane. Hundreds of thousands of trees have died in America due to the drought that no-one in the advertiser supported media will even mention “climate change” about. We are on track for 69 feet of sea level rise. This is the third winter in a row that the East has experienced a snowpocolypse. There are more twisters, earlier. And of course, there were the more energetic hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. Moreover, due to methane leaks at the fracking sites, natural gas is no cleaner than coal. It appears that they are all lying to us – apparently because money in their hands now is more important than our health and well being in the future.

Please sign this petition to ask Governor Sandoval not to approve fracking in Nevada. It won't be enough, since Governor Sandoval is a Republican, but at least they'll know we care about this.

PS:

Evidence shows that Brian Sandoval received $25,000 from the energy industry – which was one of the biggest contributions to the Sandoval campaign.