Target: Shelley Moore Capito, Chair of Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
Goal: Stop voting against interests of wildlife conservation in favor of special interests.
Every year, conservation group Defenders of Wildlife unveils a Conservation Report Card. This comprehensive report puts every member of Congress to the test on their commitments to wildlife conservation. The most recent report card evaluated nine votes cast by each chamber of Congress. And Congress as a whole (and especially the GOP majority) received a failing grade.
Several of the votes significantly undermined the Endangered Species Act, which has been credited with saving from extinction nearly all listed species since its inception. Public lands – and the wildlife that call these lands home – proved to be another popular target of Congress, as special interests in fossil fuels and logging scored major victories. More votes impacting the environment and wildlife continue to unfold, including a recent effort to ease regulations on lead ammunition on public lands.
The U.S. Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works – which recently hosted Defenders of Wildlife – ironically and audaciously has members with some of the worst track records on conservation. Sign the petition below to demand this supposed representative of America’s lands and inhabitants start doing the job for which it was created.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Senator Moore Capito,
The Environment and Public Works Committee recently received testimony from Defenders of Wildlife Vice President Jake Li on the Endangered Species Act…the very same act this Congress has routinely voted to gut. Was this testimony and this hearing just an empty gesture? Currently, no less than half of members of this committee, including yourself, have received a decisive failing grade on the Defenders of Wildlife’s Conservation Report Card. The majority members of this committee average a grade of 11 percent, with two members receiving a zero grade.
The committee’s stated responsibilities involve oversight and protection of the environment and resource conservation. If you want to truly honor this mission you are supposed to lead, then you will use the hearing on Endangered Species Act implementation and the vote on lead ammunition regulation to chart a new course and repledge your allegiance to America’s lands and inhabitants, not to special interests.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: David Atkins
