350 Wenatchee Climate Conversations NCW

Thanks to our friends at Climate Rail Alliance for alerting us to Congressional bill S1260, the Endless Frontiers Act, and an amendment proposed by Senator Maria Cantwell.

From an article in the Intercept:

An amendment was added to that legislation by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., to hand over $10 billion to NASA — money that most likely would go to Blue Origin, a company that’s headquartered in Cantwell’s home state.

Cantwell’s amendment is no sure bet though: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced a last-minute amendment Monday to eliminate the $10 billion. “It does not make a lot of sense to me that we would provide billions of dollars to a company owned by the wealthiest guy in America,” Sanders told The Intercept Tuesday.

The Bezos space company had been competing against SpaceX for a contract to put astronauts on the moon, the first such trips since 1972, but lost the bidding process with a price tag twice that of SpaceX. NASA announced the award to the Elon Musk-owned company last month.

Many of us regard this as unbelievably wasteful and just plain wrong.

MORE INFO

• Intercept Article: https://theintercept.com/2021/05/25/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-senate-bailout/

• Text of Bill: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1260/

Please take 5 minutes today to let our Washington Senators know we oppose bailouts for billionaires.

ACTION STEPS

• “As a constituent and a taxpayer, I strongly object to the amendment to S1260, the Endless Frontiers Act, submitted by Senator Cantwell that would designate $10billion for an additional or redundant contract to be awarded to any company for moon-landing and exploration. NASA has already made an award to Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. Awarding additional money at a time when our country’s infrastructure has vast unmet needs is an insult and an injury to taxpayers and citizens in Washington state and nationally.”
• “Instead of supporting Bezo’s space contracting efforts with NASA, $10billion would fund the entire Amtrak Cascades Long Range Plan for hourly service between Seattle and Portland and every other hour between Seattle and Vancouver BC, connecting 14 communities, taking traffic off our congested highways, decreasing climate emissions. We should be funding the many pressing infrastructure and human services needed such as low and middle income housing, universal healthcare, and sustainable energy production, instead of supporting the richest man in the US.”