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January 28, 2008

Whitehouse kicks off global-warming campaign at Brown

PROVIDENCE -- U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse spoke to a supportive and packed auditorium at Brown University today about global warming challenges that lie ahead and how voters need to elect a president that will lead the nation, and complement the Democratic majority in Congress, in pushing more progressive legislation to slow the effects of climate change.

Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, criticized the Bush Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency for what he said were their inadequate efforts to address the nation’s environmental issues, making specific reference to the agency’s decision rejecting states’ right to set their own vehicle emission standards.

Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said he has co-sponsored legislation that would allow states to regulate vehicle emissions.

Channeling the mantra of frustrated environmental advocates across the world, Whitehouse called for Bush to “lead or get out of the way.”

Whitehouse’s speech at Brown was the university’s first event of the global warming awareness campaign called Focus the Nation, which is a national effort to educate the public, especially students, about the dangers posed by unchecked climate change and to push legislative efforts that curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Several other universities in the state, including the University of Rhode Island and Johnson & Wales University, are participating in the effort by hosting screenings informational videos and asking teachers to stress the link between their areas of expertise to climate change during their classes.

-- Journal environment writer Natalie Garcia

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 3:31 PM | Permalink

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