Earlier this week, I profiled three candidates on the the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Dirty Dozen list who are running for the House of Representatives. As I wrote then, "[t]hese candidates consistently vote (or promise to vote) against clean energy and natural resource conservation.
Join me over the fold for part 2, in which I profile the first four GOTeaP senate candidates on the LCV's list, along with action items for their Democratic opponents.
MO-SEN: Roy Blunt vs. Robin Carnahan
First up is Roy Blunt. The less I say and the more the LCV says about him, the better.
Rep. Roy Blunt’s lifetime LCV environmental score is an abysmal 2%. In 2009, he received a 0% score after voting against every major piece of clean energy and environmental legislation.[1] LCV also launched BigOilBlunt.com, a website dedicated to exposing Rep. Blunt’s ongoing efforts to stand in the way of progress on clean energy and protect Big Oil’s profits.
"In his twelve years in office, Rep. Roy Blunt has taken good care of Big Oil by maintaining their costly tax breaks while continually voting against opportunities to create clean energy jobs, reduce pollution and improve fuel economy for Missourians," said Tony Massaro, Senior Vice President for Political Affairs at the League of Conservation Voters. "As Senator, Roy Blunt would be paid for by Big Oil and that’s exactly why LCV is naming Roy Blunt to the Dirty Dozen for the 2010 campaign cycle."
Roy Blunt has accepted more than $1 million from Big Oil and other energy interests over his entire career, $460,198 from the Oil and Gas industry alone.[2] He has been an unwavering supporter of Big Oil through his votes to maintain tax breaks and subsidies to polluting corporations while Missourians paid record prices at the pump.
Rep. Blunt has consistently voted against repealing subsidies to Big Oil, against increasing the use of renewable electricity and against efforts to help American drivers go further on a gallon of gas. In 2009, he most notably voted twice, in committee and on the floor, against the American Clean Energy and Security Act that would help create 35,000 clean energy jobs in Missouri, reduce carbon pollution and increase energy independence.[3]
"Rep. Blunt has made his position clear: he does not support a clean energy future for Missouri families. His attempts to block progress on clean energy put him drastically out of touch with Missourians who overwhelmingly supported a Renewable Electricity Standard on the 2008 ballot," said Massaro.
Here's the LCV ad against Blunt.
Congressman Roy Blunt has taken more than $1 million in campaign cash from Big Oil and other energy interests. At the same time, Blunt has voted for billions in tax breaks for BP and Exxon, and against clean energy jobs for Missouri.
Wow.
Blunt's opponent for this open seat is Robin Carnahan. She's not perfect, but she definitely supports clean energy. Here's her Act Blue page.
PA-SEN: Pat Toomey vs. Joe Sestak
Pat Toomey, former president of the Club for Growth, bad for the environment? Of course!
"Be it as a member of Congress or president of the Club for Growth, Pat Toomey has made clear that he walks lockstep with Big Oil and other corporate polluters while opposing new energy policies that would set America on the path to a clean energy future," said Tony Massaro, Senior Vice President for Political Affairs at the League of Conservation Voters. "From drilling for oil in the Great Lakes to opposing legislation that creates clean energy jobs, his extreme views on energy policy put him far outside the mainstream and easily earn him a spot on the Dirty Dozen."
Toomey’s Big Oil record:
• Toomey’s lifetime LCV environmental score is an abysmal 11%. In 2003 and 2004, his last two years in office, he received a 0% score after voting against every major piece of clean energy and environmental legislation.[1]
• As a Congressman, Toomey voted against repealing subsidies to Big Oil, against increasing energy efficiency measures and against efforts to help American drivers go further on a gallon of gas.[2]
• Over the course of his political career, Toomey has received more than $294,000 from energy interests, including $123,800 from the Oil and Gas industry.[3]
• Despite record oil disasters on the Gulf Coast and the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, Toomey continues to support dangerous oil drilling off of America’s coasts as well as in Lake Erie – and as a member of Congress he voted to open the Great Lakes to oil drilling.[4]
• Toomey has also made his staunch opposition to comprehensive energy and climate legislation that creates jobs, reduces pollution and increases our national security a key part of his campaign.[5]
LCV even put out an anti-Pat-Toomey ad in the form of a fake news report from the future.
Pennsylvania Senate Candidate Pat Toomey, who has received more than $100,000 from oil and gas interests, supports risky oil drilling in Lake Erie. We can't let this be Pennsylvania's future.
In addition to his 0% rating on environmental issues, Wikipedia lists Toomey as having a 6% "Liberal Quotient" from Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) and a 13% lifetime rating on civil rights from the ACLU. In fact, his positions on issues are a progressive's nightmare. Meanwhile, conservative organizations give him ratings in the high 90s or even 100%.
Toomey as senator? Lovely thought--NOT!
On the other hand, our man Joe Sestak has positions much more to our liking, including the following environmental ratings:
[A] 96% lifetime rating from League of Conservation Voters and a 100% rating from PennEnvironment. He was endorsed by the Sierra Club in his 2006 and 2008 Congressional election campaigns. He voted for the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2007 and the New Direction for Energy Independence, National Security and Consumer Protection Act. He was also an original co-sponsor of the Climate Stewardship Act (H.R. 620) and the Safe Climate Act.
In addition he has a 100% rating from NARAL. Oh, and he's now leading in the polls--W00T!
Joe Sestak's Act Blue Page
CA-SEN: Carly Fiorina vs. Barbara Boxer
Can Carly Fiorina buy a victory in a popular vote? Well, she did manage to win the LCV's People's Choice Award among senate candidates.
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), which works to turn environmental values into national priorities, announced that Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina has been named to the 2010 Dirty Dozen as the next "People’s Choice." Fiorina was chosen for the Dirty Dozen list through an online vote where she received 36 percent of the votes.
"When it’s politically convenient Carly Fiorina supports climate action and when it’s politically profitable she’ll side with the corporate polluters funding her campaign," said Tony Massaro, LCV Senior Vice President for Political Affairs. "Fiorina’s win as the ‘People’s Choice’ clearly shows voters want a Senator who will create new clean energy jobs in California, not a failed corporate executive with a preference for killing jobs."
Fiorina has received about $63,000 in donations this year from out-of-state coal interests and $76,850 from oil and gas companies.* As CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina laid off approximately 18,000 workers during HP’s restructuring in 2003 and then later said she regretted not firing more people.** Speaking at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, Minn., she praised Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) cap-and-trade plan as something that would "both create jobs and lower the cost of energy."*** Yet Fiorina has campaigned and run ads on her opposition to comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation, including a commercial against Senator Boxer’s stance on global warming claiming that Boxer is "worried about the weather."
"Carly Fiorina is drastically out of step with the American businesses, veterans and workers that are all calling for a clean energy economy and greater energy independence," said Massaro. "The people have spoken and we will work hard to fulfill their request for Carly Fiorina’s defeat this November."
Enough about the self-funder, who is losing in the polls. Barbara Boxer has much better positions on the issues.
Boxer successfully led the 2003 Senate floor battle to block oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.[30] In 2005, Boxer voted again to block oil drilling at ANWR.
Boxer has introduced the National Oceans Protection Act (NOPA) of 2005.[31] Some of the provisions of this act are: strengthen ocean governance; protect and restore marine wildlife and habitats; address ocean pollution; improve fisheries management. The bill also addresses needs regarding marine science, research and technology, marine mammals, coastal development, and invasive species.
Boxer is an original cosponsor of Senator Jim Jeffords’ (I-VT) Clean Power Act.[32] This legislation would reduce emissions of three pollutants coming from power plants; sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury, and also reduce emissions of carbon dioxide .
As the new head of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in January 2007, Boxer wants to reduce energy consumption. She is attempting to curb global warming by leading pilot programs. The few things that she and some of her fellow Senators are doing could cut electricity consumption by as much as 50 percent in their Capitol Hill offices.[33]
Senator Boxer was the Senate sponsor of the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act, which was signed in to law by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. The bill protected 275,830 acres (1,116 km2) of federal land as wilderness and 21 miles (34 km) of stream as a wild and scenic river, including such popular areas as the King Range and Cache Creek.[34] Senator Boxer worked with Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representative Mike Thompson (the bill's House sponsor) in the five-year effort to pass the legislation.
Boxer along with her colleague Dianne Feinstein voted in favor of subsidy payments to conventional commodity farm producers at the cost of subsidies for conservation-oriented farming.
Barbara Boxer's Act Blue Page
NV-SEN: Sharron Angle vs. Harry Reid
And now let's put the Tea in GOTeaP with Sharron the Obtuse Angle!
Angle vehemently opposes comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation and denies the sound and settled science of global warming.
"Sharron Angle would prefer to stifle Nevada’s cutting-edge clean energy economy rather than promote policies that would create jobs and increase investments in the state’s already prosperous renewable industries," said Tony Massaro, LCV Senior Vice President for Political Affairs. "Her extremist views on climate change put her far outside the mainstream, while her support for the failed energy polices of the past make her unfit for the U.S. Senate."
During her campaign for the U.S. Senate, Sharron Angle has called for the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency and referred to the BP escrow account as a "Slush Fund". [1] As a member of the Nevada State Assembly, Angle received dismal environmental scores of 17% in 2003 and 14% in 2005 from the Nevada Conservation League. [2] She also supports the permanent storage of highly radioactive nuclear waste from across the nation in Yucca Mountain, though she has called for the abolishment of the Department of Energy which would oversee such a project.[3] Angle has said "I don't, however, buy into the whole ... man-caused global warming, man-caused climate change mantra of the left. I believe that there's not sound science to back that up."[4]
Angle is also featured in a new video at www.flatearth.tv, which provides more information on the extreme views of many Republican Senate candidates.
Here's the video the LCV is talking about. Most of the rest of the GOTeaP Dirty Dozen have cameos along with Sharron the Obtuse.
A disturbing trend has emerged among many Republican Senate candidates: a refusal to accept the sound and settled science that man-made carbon pollution is causing the planet to warm. If these candidates win in November, the number of card-carrying members of this "Flat Earth Society" will rise exponentially in the world's greatest deliberative body. Take action: pledge, share, vote. www.flatearth.tv
Flat Earthers, indeed.
In contrast, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at least has something positive in his record on energy and the environment.
Reid supports legislation that would cut $15 billion in tax breaks for large oil companies and put the money toward renewable energy sources.[40] In an op-ed to the Reno Gazette Journal, Harry Reid wrote, "I am working on a bipartisan energy bill that will create thousands of Nevada jobs, save consumers money, address global warming, and make our country safer. We can do that by reducing our reliance on oil and investing in the renewable energy sources that are abundant in our state." The advocacy group "Campaign for America's Future" gave him a 100% rating from 2005 to 2006.
I'll take him over Flat Earther Sharron Angle any day!
Harry Reid's Act Blue page