Exhibit A

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

"Letter to President Barack Obama"

The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States of America
The Executive Office of the President / The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

First, my congratulations to you and your lovely wife Michelle for your courage and tenacity in running your campaign and becoming our 44th President and First Lady of the United States of America! I am very proud to have been one of your ardent supporters from the beginning and also your Precinct 221 Captain here on West Galveston Island during your primary campaign. Please see the attached RESOLUTION ON RESPONSIBLE WEST END DEVELOPMENT that was not only adopted by my Precinct, but several other Precincts, and eventually by the whole Galveston County Democratic Party.

Galveston Island is my birthplace. This past January 15th marks my 45th year as a lawyer who has devoted more than half of his personal lifetime in a pro bono capacity, in fighting against the environmental destruction of our islands and bays and wetlands along our entire Gulf of Mexico.

In years past, former Texas Land Commissioner Bob Armstrong appointed me to serve as a member of the Texas Coastal Management Program. And, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club back in the1970s, it was my responsibility to coordinate with the other state Sierra Club Chapters along the Gulf Coast in our efforts to preserve and protect our barrier islands which are sandwiched between our beaches, wetlands and the bays.

In addition, I have set up two 501(c)(3) non-profit corporations in my conservation efforts; have expended hundreds of thousands of dollars in my time and money in the enforcement of the National Environmental Policy Act as it relates to subdivision development on barrier islands, the most significant case being a twelve-year long Federal case in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, styled Fritiofson v. Alexander, Civ. No. G-78-188 (S.D.Tex.-Galveston, filed August 1978), aff’d and rev’d in part, 772 F.2d 1225 (5th Circuit 1985), in which new law was created in the Fifth Circuit concerning the cumulative impact of piecemeal destruction of our barrier island, Galveston Island, and the adjacent wetlands.

At age 75, and after 45 years of pro bono commitment in working with hundred of other individuals and organizations to preserve and protect this natural and finite resource, the stark glaring evidence today reveals that our efforts been largely ineffective. The governmental system that is in place in Texas has failed in its job of protecting our Texas Coast. There have been bits and pieces saved and incremental success occasioned by private citizens and organizations, but these pale in significance to the overwhelming destruction that has taken place on our Texas Gulf Coast. And even more alarming, there is no relief in sight. The public’s interest in these vital natural resources will continue to be destroyed in a piecemeal fashion by industrial and subdivision developments, restriction of freshwater inflow into our bay systems, and the increasing levels of toxic chemicals now being discharged into our atmosphere and water. Unless you take the drastic and decisive action being proposed to you in this letter, we will not be able to call ourselves humans much longer.

Our public continues to live under the delusion that our nation’s laws are adequate to remedy what now is conceded to be catastrophic losses to our barrier islands and their beaches, bays and wetlands. And to further compound the problem, just recently NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen sent you a letter warning you of the need to take decisive action now in your first administration to stop soaring carbon emissions that threaten to trigger global flooding, widespread species lost and continued major weather disruption. He argues that most estimates of sea level rise are too conservative, and that thanks to accelerating ice melt, rises will be far greater than previously thought. Rather than a rise of between 20 and 60 centimeters as suggested by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr. Hansen has told you that a far more likely figure will be about 1.4 meters, enough to cause flooding in many of the world’s low-lying areas. Our Galveston Island and the adjacent mainland are particularly vulnerable and will be inundated. And so will be all the other barrier islands on our Nation’s coasts! We have already experienced our wetlands disintegrating and serious erosion of our wetlands where they interface with our bays.

While natural subsidence has also played an important role in the erosion of our barrier islands and wetlands, the development of subdivisions on our barrier islands, at least in the history of West Galveston Island, has been the greatest single cause of the destruction of this very precious asset we have on Galveston Island. Our public has enjoyed Galveston and its unique resources both for recreational and commercial fishing for almost 200 years, as it is only 50 miles away from the Houston megalopolis that is now home to almost 6 million people.

The United States Army Corps of Engineers, under the Department of the Army, has had the responsibility for the protection of our barrier islands and wetlands and the implementation of the mandates of NEPA and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. I can tell you without any equivocation and with absolute certainty that this government agency has done a great disservice to our public in its failure to carry out its mandate. To the contrary, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, acting under the policies of the Secretary of the Army, has been the main catalyst in the continuing destruction of our beaches, bays and wetlands, by literally becoming the advocate for land and real estate developers and issuing its permits for the destruction wetlands on our barrier island. This is while many dedicated and talented personnel working in this agency and other Federal and State agencies conscientiously try to apply their skills to protect our natural resources. But, they are fighting a losing battle in this political game over which they have no control.

I would ask that you and your staff assemble the necessary information to abruptly change the paradigm for the protection of our barrier islands, our beaches, our wetlands and our bays, and that you then issue an Executive Order directed to all federal agencies, ordering them not to allow them to issue any more permits for subdivision development on any barrier islands along the entire coastline of the United States! Your lawyers and your staff can craft the appropriate language that elevates the importance of barrier islands to all the citizens of the United States, mandating barrier island protection by defining them as having the same legal status as our National Parks. The unbridled destruction of our barrier islands by real estate developers has only allowed the rich to become richer as a consequence of the same greed and irresponsibility that you correctly noted in your Inaugural Address as having gravely harmed our economy. The important commercial and recreational resources of our barrier islands should always be available to our Nation as a whole. But they are being relentlessly destroyed because of impotent laws and regulations that seemingly lack any meaningful force or power to actually protect the environment because of the United States Army Corps of Engineers’ failure or unwillingness to interpret them in the interest of serving the public’s overall interest.

My lifetime of living most of my years on West Galveston Island has allowed me to live on, use and raise my family during the most important years of our lives. In my lifetime, the Western portion of our Island, which is not protected by a seawall, was totally free from any development. The few “fishing camps” that were sprinkled across 16 miles of the Western portion of West Galveston Island were few and far between. When the first real estate developers started destroying the Island by dredging channels and canals, and filling in wetlands, and subdividing lots for “second homes,” there was no real market. Gradually, ordinary working people could afford to buy these lots cheaply and build for themselves a “second home” or “vacation home.” With the subsidy of the United States government in allowing mortgages to finance the construction because of the Federal government’s providing of National Flood Insurance, coupled with the state’s subsidy of Windstorm Insurance, the West End of Galveston Island continued to grow and to be developed in a piecemeal fashion, without any comprehensive plan to protect the Island from the storms and rising tides. Now there is only a small portion of the Island has not been criss-crossed by power lines, ditches, canals, effluence from septic systems, roads, and houses along with the general destruction of the pastures which feed and nurture the wetlands. The fragile environment of our Barrier Island is almost totally destroyed.

Another recent lawsuit, Galveston Beach to Bay Preserve v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, No. 3:07-cv-00549 (S.D.Tex.-Galveston, filed Nov. 27, 2007), now attempts again to require the Corps to do an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before issuing permits for three (3) major pending developments which comprise over 1,300 acres, which will virtually destroy the four (4) remaining large tracts of land on West Galveston Island. Regardless of whether or not an EIS is completed, the Corps’ past performance suggests that they will act as they have before, and even after completing a Comprehensive EIS, continue to issue permits for these proposed subdivisions.

I watched intensely the news of you and your family recently enjoying your vacation on the beaches of Hawaii. Hardly any human being that I’ve ever known has failed to recognize the importance that our beaches, wetlands and bays play in allowing the rich and the non-rich alike such a beautiful and powerful source of recreation. The beauty of our beaches, wetlands and bays have been described as being akin to an experience in an outdoor cathedral, nurturing man’s spiritual nature in a way that is indescribable.  Today, only the super-rich can afford this luxury of ownership, as ordinary citizens of our country have been gradually squeezed out of the few remaining areas that represent a near-pristine experience of the outdoors that was once enjoyed by all people who did not own homes on barrier islands.

Mr. President, your immediate execution of an Executive Order placing a moratorium on all subdivision developments on all barrier islands of the United States can be legally accomplished under the existing Constitutional standards announced in the case of Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Comm’n, 505 U.S. 1003 (1992). This Executive Order is to stop and prevent all future subdivision developments on all barrier islands to satisfy Constitutional considerations under the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses. The government can later implement a policy to purchase any properties that would not satisfy the legal standards of condemnation allowed in the Lucas case, such as those under the South Carolina Beachfront Management Act, located in Title 48, Chapter 39 of the South Carolina Code.

Secondly, my request is that you have Congress, while attending to our other national crises, create a Congressional committee to draft appropriate legislation to further define and sanction the destruction of not only “wetlands” under the existing Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, but to extend the definition of wetlands to include the adjacent uplands between the beaches and the bays on barrier islands which contain fresh water wetlands and swales necessary for the natural protection of barrier islands through the processes defined by recent studies noted in Dr. John B. Anderson’s book “The Formation and Future of the Upper Texas Coast,” and the classic Ian McHarg book “Design With Nature.” You can call this proposed legislation the National Barrier Island Protection Act and craft it along the lines of the Padre Island National Seashore Act, which was authored and shepherded through Congress by our very popular deceased Senator from Texas, the Honorable Ralph Yarborough.

Thirdly, while taking these two (2) immediate actions, you will also have to take the necessary steps to amend the Coastal Barrier Resources Act to terminate the issuance of flood insurance to any new structures on barrier islands not behind a seawall. A quick assessment on West Galveston Island shows that there is an over-abundance of real estate subdivision lots that have already been permitted, allowing for the continued development of thousands of homes.  Your Executive Order should also ban the issuance of any flood insurance policies on any new structures built in these areas to help free the American taxpayers from having to subsidize the extreme losses occasioned by the hurricanes, not only on the Texas Gulf Coast, but the Florida Gulf Coast and the Eastern Coast of our United States also. This step will be consistent with your commitment to cut wasteful government spending.

My résumé can be found on my Web page of http://www.bobmoorelaw.com. With your call yesterday in your Inaugural Address for all citizens to recommit to “the work of remaking America,” I dedicate my services to work in any of your appropriate governmental agencies on the coordination and implementation of these requests. Nothing gives me as much hope in the thought of preserving our barrier islands for our public use and for our children’s future use and enjoyment than knowing that you will be a bold and decisive President who will continue to work for the betterment of the ordinary working people of our Country.

Your leadership and your call cause me excitement and a recollection the experiences of my youth when I responded to calls similar to yours. The first was the call to sign up for two years of service as an officer in the United States Army to serve as a Reconnaissance Platoon Leader on the German-Czech border, which was being defended by our country at that time against the Russians during the Cold War. I was told that taking that assignment would classify me as “cannon fodder” because the Third Armored Division’s sole objective was just to hopefully slow down the Russian armored divisions at the Fulda Gap, to buy just enough time to get our servicemen’s dependents out of Europe. Our American forces were outnumbered far too greatly for there to be any hope of our survival in such an event. I had the option of merely taking a six-month assignment of active duty stateside and waning out my commission with six years in the Reserves stateside.

Upon my return from that duty, I went to night law school, and after beginning my practice on January 15, 1964, was soon thereafter nominated to serve on the Board of Trustees of the First Unitarian Church in Houston, where Rev. Horace Westwood was our Minister. I had the envious position of being the seventh Trustee on the Board who broke a tie vote on a special Board of Trustees meeting that voted to allow Rev. Horace Westwood to join the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s march on March 9, 1965 in Selma, Alabama. When Rev. Horace Westwood came back, he was spiritually “higher than a kite.” We lost half of the Board and the membership, the folks who had all the money. But the additional Board members joined together, and without knowing where our funds would come from, we sponsored the first Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA) worker in Houston and through that activity, we established the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center which still thrives there today in community service to the poor and disadvantaged. Seeking justice has been the prime mover in my life as a lawyer and as a follower of Christ. With whatever remaining days I may have, I would like to be a part of and a participant in your Administration to continue the tremendous work of confronting the problems facing our Nation, which you have so bravely taken on. I will go wherever you send me, and do whatever you want me to do. I still know how to follow orders from the Commander in Chief.

If you will look on my Web site under “Areas of Practice” and click on “Environmental Law” and “Historic Preservation Law,” you will learn of how a billionaire corporate developer, The Mitchell Development Corporation of the Southwest, destroyed a 2,000 year old archaeological site in the name of creating “more available” lots primary for recreational homes. The facts support that this same area was near the actual landing site of the Narvaez expedition as described in many translations of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca’s La Relación, the first known Europeans to have set foot on Texas soil. Recorded history in the State of Texas began with this group’s landing in what is today the Lafitte’s Cove Subdivision. This same developer, in conjunction with the first Republican governor in over 100 years, Bill Clements, were responsible for the veto of a bill that was almost-unanimously passed by both chambers of our State Legislature and that would have legally declared indigenous peoples’ remains to be “human” and to protect their gravesites. I call it the American Indian Emancipation Act.  That veto had the effect of denying American aborigines the status of being “human beings.” That veto allowed this developer to then exhume the majority of the 52 discovered remains on this archaeological site, labeled as “41 GV 66.” Radiocarbon testing on a portion of the remains indicated that the oldest skeletal remains were interred there 50 years (plus or minus) before the birth of Christ. Our government, through the United States Army Corps of Engineers, flaunted the environmental and historical preservation laws and became the advocate for the developer.

And, these Federal agencies continue to take away these priceless assets here on West Galveston Island today in favor of granting developers the right to just continue the destruction of this most precious asset that fewer and fewer Americans are able to enjoy. This site and others on West Galveston Island would have qualified as National Parks.

I will be glad to fly to Washington or any other location to work with any federal government agency that you might direct me to, and to take over or to help guide this important project, and to help your Administration assemble a team of expert lawyers, scientists and professors on this subject from across the United States, to give and dedicate my time and services for the remainder of my life at no charge to our government.

God bless you and your family and your Administration. And I pray to God every morning for you and Michelle, and Sasha and Malia, and your mother-in-law Ms. Robinson, asking Him to grant you all health, safety and your success in leading our Nation in restoring its greatness!

Sincerely,

Robert M. Moore

cc:

 1. The Honorable Greg B. Craig                    
Counsel to the President

2. The Honorable Rahm Emanuel
Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff

3. The Honorable Carol Browner
Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change

4. The Honorable Joseph R. Biden
Vice President of the United States
Chairman, White House Task Force on the Middle Class