Category — Global Warming

“Throughout my life, I have been a consistent voice for preserving and promoting the environment. We all have to live and breathe the same air and drink the same water. We all want open space, vibrant wildlife and a healthy ecosystem. My dedication to the environment dates back to the 1980’s when my wife and I organized a curbside recycling program in my hometown of Wheaton, one that continues to this day.”

Peter Roskam, from his campaign website

Curbside recycling to protect the vibrant wildlife and healthy ecosystem of Wheaton. Isn’t that special.

Peter Roskam is fond of portraying himself as an environmentalist, but a close look at his record since coming to Congress paints a different picture.

The League of Conservation Voters last month released its 2007 National Environmental Scorecard. The scorecard, which has been produced every year since 1970, assesses members of Congress based upon their voting records on legislation related to the environment, clean energy, and global warming.

One would think that Roskam, with his “dedication to the environment” would have scored pretty high.

In fact, he did not. Truth is, Roskam’s score was was quite poor, a miserable 15%.

How did Roskam score so low? Essentially by doing what he always does - voting according to the wishes of the oil companies and other big corporations that fund his campaigns and whose interests he places above anything else. The full list of Roskam’s votes scored by the League is here.

Most notably, perhaps, Roskam voted against the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, H.R. 6, on 12/6/2007 . This bill raised Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for automobiles to 35 mpg by 2020, increased fuel efficiency standards for a variety of household appliances and industrial equipment, and promoted the production of clean renewable fuels. Roskam and other Republicans opposed the bill because of Democratic efforts to make it budget neutral by reimposing taxes on big oil companies previously cut by the Bush administration and also because it imposed a renewable sources requirement of 15% for utilities in power generation. It later passed and was signed into law with these provisions stripped out. Roskam has received substantial campaign contributions during the present cycle from both the electric utilities and oil and gas industries.

We are facing environmental catastrophe in the coming century and we cannot afford to retain legislators who resist efforts to promote change out of concern for corporate profits. Roskam must be shown the door this fall. Curbside recycling in Wheaton isn’t going to save this planet for our children.

The United States Chamber of Commerce recently honored Peter Roskam for proving in his first term to be “an effective ally to the business community”.

Sounds great until you realize what exactly “being an effective ally to the business community” means.

Put simply, it means consistently voting against the interests of the majority of citizens in your district and giving big business exactly what it demands.

It means means Roskam voting against reducing the dependence on fossil fuels that is threatening our national security and destroying our environment by requiring minimum standards for the percentage of electricity generated using renewable sources of energy.

It means Roskam voting against tax incentives for energy conservation and development of clean, renewable energy sources because they are funded by the repeal of tax breaks to big oil companies now enjoying huge profits at our expense every time we fill up our tanks.

It means Roskam voting against the Children’s Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007 which would have insured that Illinois’ uninsured children receive the kind of health care that Roskam’s own kids get at taxpayer expense.

It means Roskam standing up for the interests of big drug companies rather than allowing the Medicare program to negotiate for better prices on prescription drugs.

It means Roskam voting against protection of his constituents right to equal pay for equal work. And their right to organize.

And it means Roskam voting against protecting middle class taxpayers from the Alternative Minimum Tax.

So congratulations on your big award, Peter, and thanks for nothing. Its time we had a new Representative in Congress who works for us and not for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

This post on Illinois Review drew my attention today: “Do nothing,” global warming skeptics say.

The blurb is is related to the the U.N. Climate Change Conference going on in Bali, Indonesia this week and the Chicago-based Heartland Institute’s attempts to nose its way into the news surrounding the conference by claiming that the U.N. is trying to silence it’s panel of “dissenting scientists”.

The Heartland Institute is a self-described “nonprofit research and education organization”. Its mission, according to the website is to “discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Such solutions include parental choice in education, choice and personal responsibility in health care, market-based approaches to environmental protection, privatization of public services, and deregulation in areas where property rights and markets do a better job than government bureaucracies”. Based on that alone, we know that it is not a scientific organization. This is a marketing/lobbying organization.

[Read more →]

Peter Roskam sided again today with corporate interests and with George Bush and voted no on a major Democratic initiative to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, improve the fuel efficiency of the cars we drive, and begin to address the problem of global climate change which is threatening our very existence.

Roskam and most of his Republican colleagues voted against the Energy Independence and Security Act because it provided for the repeal of a tax break with which the Republicans had gifted Big Oil back in 2005 when they were in the majority. Roskam’s vote was yet another “rubber stamp” of George Bush’s policies (Bush has threatened to veto the bll if it is approved in the Senate) and the latest example of Roskam’s pattern of consitently favoring corporate interests over the welfare of his constituency.

The bill, which passed in the House despite Roskam’s vote, would if enacted into law:

• Raise overall automotive fuel efficiency standards to 35 mpg for cars, trucks, and SUVs by the year 2020, a 40% increase over present rates
• Require electric utilities to generate at least 15% of their power output from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy, also by 2020
• Require the increased use of biofuels such as ethanol
• Provide tax breaks for energy efficiency and for the use of renewable fuels
• Offset the cost of those tax breaks by repealing previous tax breaks given to big oil companies by the Bush Administration and the previous Republican Congress
• Provide assistance to small businesses in conserving energy
• Train workers for jobs, such as retrofitting of buildings, that promote greater energy efficiency
• Begin to address the threat of global warming by increasing efficiency in our use of fossil fuels

An analysis of the proposed renewable energy standards for utilities prepared by the Union of Concerned Scientists suggests that the standards could save U.S. consumers as much as $18 billion in energy costs each year, in addition to the $24 billion in savings from improved automobile fuel economy.

The Republicans still hope to stop the bill in the Senate, perhaps using a filibuster. If not, Bush will likely veto the bill, then try to blame the Democrats for not getting any thing done. This is their game plan, obstruct then accuse. But these guys are in the pocket of the oil companies and I think most Americans will be smart enough to recognize it.