Senators’ Positions on Climate Change Reflect Their Donors’ Wishes
Earlier this week, President Obama followed up on the promise he made in his State of the Union Address, to take action on climate change even if Congress wouldn’t. Specifically, he said, “if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. Why would Congress be so recalcitrant on an issue of such vital importance as taking action to minimize (it's too late to avoid) the impact of a crisis that could threaten the existence of civilization as we know it? A recent analysis performed by MapLight suggests the root of much of the underlying motivation for our elected officials is money. While this isn’t terribly surprising, it is stunningly disappointing to see how lacking in character those men and women we have elected to lead us appear to be — trading the broad interests of future generations for their own very narrow, self-serving interest in raising money to enable them to remain in jobs that, it would appear, they are morally unqualified to serve in.
The two tables show the name of the industry or interest and the amount contributed to senators. Gas & electric utilities $ 3,185,646 A similar examination of interests who would tend to support action on climate change yielded the following results. Environmental policy $2,877,671 So that is a total of $25 million, versus a total of $4 million. It is pretty clear that money talks. A number of bills have been submitted since 2007, mostly by Democrats
attempting to deal with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and these have
either died in committee or been filibustered to death if they actually
made it onto the floor. Coal mining interests gave out $17 million, almost all of it to Republicans, except for Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who received $222k, about the same as his Republican counterpart. Electric utilities made contributions of $23 million to elected officials, alongside a whopping $140 million in overall lobbying (about the same as oil & gas). This was more evenly divided across party lines, with Republicans receiving roughly $14 million and Democrats $9 million. The president has vowed to use executive authority, primarily through the EPA, to address carbon emissions, largely by limiting the allowable emissions from coal plants, which the Republicans will undoubtedly fight, either through the courts or through additional legislation. As President Obama preemptively pointed out in his speech, opponents always claim that this type of regulation will be bad for business and every time they have been wrong. The critics’ focus tends to be on the very short term changes that need to be made, rather than on the ultimate result of a cleaner, safer society being served by more efficient companies. Too often, as Ramez Naam points out in his excellent book, The Infinite Resource, the role that innovation plays is commonly underestimated. Continue Reading at Triple Pundit Money Bag via Shutterstock ©2013. Copyright Environmental News Network To subscribe or visit go to: http://www.enn.com |