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Sometimes It’s Better to Stay and Fight

Re “When Courage Was Called For, She Punted,” Commentary, March 20: In his Op-Ed piece about my book, “It’s My Party Too,” Bill McKibben accuses me of cowardice for not resigning as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency when President Bush backed off his promise to seek a mandatory cap on carbon emissions from utilities. He suggests that my resignation “would have done great -- maybe even historic -- good” by putting the issue of global climate change “at the center of American political debate.” I’m not surprised that McKibben reaches this conclusion. A quick look at the list of books he’s written -- including one that promotes spending no more than $100 for Christmas -- suggests that he values the conspicuous display of personal virtue over the harder work of actual policymaking.

Had I resigned in a principled huff, I probably would have been lionized for a week or two by those who oppose the Bush administration. But it ultimately would have been an empty gesture, without any lasting effect on environmental policy. The charge also overlooks the point that the carbon decision was part of a broader discussion of energy. McKibben dismisses the tough new regulation I fought for on non-road diesel engines as “no big deal.” I couldn’t disagree more. The EPA has estimated that this regulation, once it’s fully implemented, will annually prevent more than 9,600 premature deaths, 16,000 heart attacks, 5,700 children’s asthma-related emergency room visits and nearly 1 million work days lost because of illness.

For someone who thinks the concept of spending just a hundred bucks on Christmas is worth writing a book about, I’m surprised he thinks these health benefits are “no big deal.”

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Christine Todd Whitman

Oldwick, N.J.

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