Originally posted as a comment on Congressman Erik Paulsen’s Facebook wall. Incumbent Erik Paulsen (R) is being challenged by Terri Bonoff (DFL) who currently serves in the Minnesota Senate.
Cross-posted here by simple cut-and-paste as a matter of record.
September 4 2016, 64 days till election day.
Climate change directly affects us in Minnesota Congressional District 3. It affects the amount of rain we get each season, the level of our lakes, the snow we get in our winters, the severity of the storms we get in the summers, even things which seem unrelated to climate like the plagues of mosquitoes that we've been getting recently. At the national level, we can now see the effects it's having on coastal areas in the United States (New York Times tinyurl.com/...) "For decades, as the global warming created by human emissions caused land ice to melt and ocean water to expand, scientists warned that the accelerating rise of the sea would eventually imperil the United States’ coastline. Now, those warnings are no longer theoretical: The inundation of the coast has begun. The sea has crept up to the point that a high tide and a brisk wind are all it takes to send water pouring into streets and homes."
Where does Congressman Paulsen stand on climate change? At the Minnesota Fair August 16, 2008 an MPR reporter asked Representative Paulsen a pertinent question about climate change. Paulsen's answer wasn't too encouraging: "I'm not smart enough to know if that's true or not." His record on climate and the environment hasn't gotten any better since then. There's a very long list of anti-environmental votes which has given him a low score by the League of Conservation Voters. For example, in 2009 Paulsen was one of signatories of HR.391 that amended the Clean Air Act (that's the federal law that regulates air emissions from stationary and mobile sources) to exclude from the definition of "air pollutant" carbon dioxide, water vapor etc and declare that nothing in the Clean Air Act shall be treated as authorizing or requiring the regulation of climate change or global warming. For other and many recent examples, visit tinyurl.com/...
Paulsen refuses to say anything specific about whether he will vote for or endorse Donald Trump. This though, isn't the only issue that Paulsen doesn't want to talk about. Climate change and the environment are also issues that Paulsen avoids. In this regard, his DFL challenger Terri Bonoff has been very clear: In fact, Bonoff has been endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters tinyurl.com/... . Paulsen says he is proud to represent our district. However, his voting record on the environment is not something he should be proud of and neither should we.