I keep wondering: When was it that the Republican Party became the anti-environment party?
It seems like today, it’s Republicans in Congress who lead all the assaults on the nation’s conservation and environmental laws. The list of attacks is long, and includes the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act and other important laws.
This wasn’t always the case. My favorite president, Teddy Roosevelt, was a progressive Republican who was probably the nation’s first conservationist political leader. His legacy includes numerous national parks, monuments and national forests, and the creation of a national conservation ethic…
Today in Washington, most (but not all) Republicans want to eviscerate the EPA, kill laws and regulations that are designed to protect the headwater streams that ensure clean water in our rivers and lakes, and undermine the Clean Air Act. They have advocated despoiling one of our last great wildernesses in Alaska for oil, and have supported an enormous open pit Pebble Mine that would likely destroy the world’s largest sustainable salmon fishery in Bristol Bay, Alaska.
If the Republicans take over the Senate, Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe will take over as chairman of the Environment Committee. Among other things, he has vowed to gut the EPA, calls climate change a hoax, and has a lifetime voting record of 5 percent by the nonpartisan League of Conservation Voters.
A vote for Brown–a colonel in David Koch’s dark army–is a vote to put Inhofe in charge of that committee. It’s a vote to put the forces of right-wing radicalism in charge of both houses of Congress. It’s a vote to betray your children and grandchildren.
Scott Brown spent nearly three years obeying the whims of David Koch in the US Senate. Does it make any sense to give him another six years to do the same?
Mr. Doscher says it best:
Who would you trust to determine the cause of climate change? Thousands of scientists who have spent their entire careers studying the issue, or politicians who have been told to adhere to the talking points written in an oil industry think tank?
Would you really trust Scott Brown? Not to take emissions down! He has shown he’s just a clown who wants to see the planet drown.
UPDATE: More from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
