Lobbying Against Global Warming

"Lobbyists ask for delay on emissions bill"

After reading the article in the Baltimore Sun, it brought me back to the recent in-class discussion regarding the ethical ramifications of lobbyists delaying legislation in the Ford Pinto case. Lives were lost in the time period in which Capitol Hill was delayed by lobbyists from moving forward on legislation to take the car off the road. Washington knew about the Ford Pinto and the deaths resulting from the exploding gas tanks in rear-end explosions, but lobbyists that were paid by the profiting Ford Motor Company slowed the process. In this article, lives are not directly or immediately impacted as in the Ford Pinto case, but it comes down to an issue of Maryland as a state trying to clean up its air quality with a Ð''clean air bill' and the lobbyists hired to slow them from gaining legislation to do so.

Here in Maryland, the temperatures this winter have been seasonably warm and the issue of global warming has become a front burner issue not only for law makers, but also for the everyday person. Personally, global warming was always something that I knew was going on, but was easy for me to put it out of my mind because it is not something I encounter everyday. This may be the same school of reasoning for others as well, a case where "out of sight-out of mind" clichÐ"©s becoming very relevant. Further, human nature has more reasoning that they are just one person and "what is my helping on cutting down greenhouse gases going to do?" All that being said, there comes a point where something has to be done to ensure a healthier environment.

Maryland is trying to determine in Annapolis whether they want to implement the emission standards in automobiles similar to that of California. California has historically been above and beyond national regulations and a total of seven other states have adopted their standards as well. (Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maine, Oregon, and Washington) They continue to set the benchmark higher than what the government establishes nationwide.

The ethical issues in this article lie similarly in the Ford Pinto case. The lobbyists, who may simply be doing their jobs, are getting paid by the automobile industry, let's call them "Detroit", so that the automobile industry doesn't have to reorganize their production to favor lower emission vehicles. They are acting with the mindset of "for the good of the shareholder." However, as the greenhouse gases produced continue to burn a whole in the ozone layer which raises temperatures, which in turn effects the environment and ecosystems on many levels. The ethical dilemma lies within