Yesterday, Senator Casey
joined 52 of his colleagues, including 5 Republicans, to beat back an
irrational attack on clean air.
The vote against a resolution
to permanently stop the Environmental Protection Agency from implementing new
regulations requiring coal-fired power plants to cut their emissions of mercury
and other toxic substances shouldn’t have required courage. Senator Inhofe of
Oklahoma is a right-wing extremist doing the bidding of the Koch brothers and the
coal industry. He was the architect of the attempt to stop this needed
regulation that provides long-overdue protection for public health, especially the
health of women and babies. In more reasoned times, this kind of extreme
anti-environmental jihad would have been dismissed out of hand. This resolution
should never have gotten to the Senate floor.
But these are not reasoned
times. Forty-six Senators, including
Pennsylvania’s Senator Toomey, voted to rollback protections for women and
babies and allow the industry to continue to spew out toxic mercury at will. Climate
Progress has a chart showing the amount of campaign contributions these senators
received from the electric utility and mining companies.
Senator Casey is up for
re-election this year, and that makes the vote all the more important and
courageous. His opponent, Tom Smith, is a former coal company owner, and he
jumped all over Casey’s vote calling
it part of the Obama-Casey war on coal. Casey currently enjoys a 51 to 32
advantage over Smith in recent polls.
Fifty-one percent of voters also approve of the job Casey is doing as senator.
But this is June, and
November is a long way off. Senator Casey’s vote for clean air will draw the
ire of the industry and will open the deep pockets of the Koch brothers who
will likely pour campaign dollars into Smith’s campaign. We can expect a slew
of negative campaign ads targeting Casey come the autumn. Senator Casey well
knew that when he cast his vote.
Pennsylvanians know that
Senator Casey works for the public interest and will buck industry when it’s
necessary. Every Pennsylvania voter should feel fortunate to have a reasoned,
independent member in the Senate.
Let Senator Casey know you
appreciate his courage – go to his website and thank him.
No comments:
Post a Comment