POW to communicate climate change concerns to Congress in Washington D.C. this September
Protect Our Winters (POW) is sending a team to Washington D.C on September 14 to meet the key decision-makers and record their protest against the legislation that restricts the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to regulate carbon emission
in the atmosphere.
The POW team will comprise of the renowned backcountry snowboarder and founder of POW, Jeremy Jones, along with snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler, skier Chris Davenport and Aspen Skiing Company’s Auden Schendler. The group will let the US Senate and the US House
of Representatives know of their concerns and opposition through a letter that they would be delivering personally.
Talking to a leading sports network, the Executive Director of POW, Chris Steinkamp, explained that the POW had met with the lawmakers in Washington last year to voice their concerns about the climate legislation and show the film, ‘Generations.’ The congressmen
had given a very positive response, asking the POW representatives to make regular trips to Washington in order to let the lawmakers know about the views of winter-sports community.
Encouraged by the response, POW decided to send out another group to the American capital before the season kicks off and communicate their objection to the legislation that restricts the EPA’s ability to limit carbon pollution, highlighting the adverse
consequences of the decision.
“We bring a pretty unique perspective to this situation,” said Steinkamp. “The snow-sports community is one of the few groups of people who are actually witnessing climate change. And we're coming from mountain towns where climate change is going to hit
us the hardest. If we want them to fight for clean energy, they need to hear from us, and our perspective.”
POW member, Bleiler, recently emailed the winter-sports industry leaders and athletes, urging them to become signatories to the letter that will be presented to the US Senate and US House of Representatives next month. In the email, Bleiler mentioned the
bill that would soon be passed to restrict EPA from regulating carbon dioxide. She reminded everyone how such a bill would affect the winter sports community’s lifestyles, jobs and economic vitality of their mountain communities.
The bill restricting EPA from regulating carbon dioxide is not the only worry for the winter-sports community. There are several bills dealing with EPA regulations in the pipeline already, which includes H.R 910, a bill preventing the EPA from regulating
greenhouse gases from power plants, oil refineries and other such sources.
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