Yesterday, the Senate passed two resolutions, both 52 to 46, to block Obama’s recent carbon regulations for power plants. One resolution focused on the EPA rule for existing power plants, and the other focused on the EPA rule targeted at future power plants.
Three Democrats joined Republicans here: Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and Joe Manchin (D-WV).
They have the three lowest lifetime LCV scores in the Democratic caucus: 54%, 61%, and 45% respectively.
Heitkamp and Manchin are the biggest recipients of fossil fuel money among the Senate Democrats. 3 of the top 10 corporate donors to Heitkamp’s campaign committees are fossil fuel companies. 5 of the top 10 corporate donors to Manchin’s campaign committees are utilities or fossil fuel companies. That, however, doesn’t include any potential connections between their big corporate law firm backers and the fossil fuel industry.
Three Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the two resolutions: Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Mark Kirk (R-IL).