With a historic, long-lasting drought in California and across the country, wildfires blazing everywhere, and earthquakes shaking Oklahoma (not supposed to happen), there is no question that climate change and the environment are two issues dominating the minds of many voters. Renewable energy, resource efficiency, and an overall transition to a green economy are just a few of the known solutions to these problems. Rep. Ken Calvert (CA-42), however, believes in taking the opposite route on these issues; Rep. Calvert wants to increase the burning of hydrocarbons, increase deforestation, and deregulate industries which contribute to climate change and environmental degradation for the sake of corporate interests and at the expense of the planet and the constituents of the 42nd district of California.
With votes for such bills as HR 2728 the “Protecting States’ Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act” and HR 1965 the “Federal Lands Jobs and Energy Security Act,” both of which are snazzy names for bills that in fact would result in more fracking, less regulation, more pollution and environmental degradation, Rep. Calvert asserts that his interests are on the side of big oil, not people. As well, Rep. Calvert voted against an amendment to HR 2728 which would simply regulate methane emissions from natural gas wells, or to phrase it better, to regulate the release of noxious, flammable, climate-change inducing gas from wells that pollute our water, our air, and numerous other environmental catastrophes which affect every person who enjoys drinking water, eating food, and breathing. Beyond this, Rep. Calvert has spent his career in the House opposing any regulation of the carbon industry, opposing any program for renewable energy development, and sacrificed the health and well-being of his constituents and the country for the sake of increasing profits for the most profitable industries in the world. Voting against bills like “Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act” and for the anti-environmental farm bill, Rep. Calvert proves that he has no interest in protecting the health and well-being of the people he represents. However, beyond his dismal environmental legislation voting record as a House member, Rep. Ken Calvert holds an important position on a House subcommittee.
Rep. Calvert is a member on the House Appropriations Committee where he chairs the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies giving him substantial power in regards to environmental legislation and appropriations. The Chairman of the Interior and Environmental Subcommittee should not be a person who receives a 0% rating from The Sierra Club, Environmental America, the National Parks Conservation Association, and the League of Conservation Voters. Such low scores by groups devoted to the health and well-being of people and the environment for the chairman of an important environmental subcommittee is based in large part on Rep. Calvert’s history of supporting destructive drilling on public lands (that is, land which belongs to every American), his unfettered support for deregulation of water and air polluting industries (big oil corporations and the fracking industry), and his desire to see the EPA dissolved. Numerous votes in the House which forbid federal agencies from using the “social cost of carbon emissions” in assessing how to better regulate dirty energy industries demonstrate, also, that Rep. Calvert does not accept climate change as a problem to be solved today but instead an issue to be kicked down the road and will undoubtedly have to be solved by future generations. Of course, the consequences of climate change are evident all around us today in the form of more destructive and frequent hurricanes, tornadoes, and long-term nationwide droughts and forest fires.
There is no more time to debate the issue of climate change (there is no debate, simply denial from Republicans) and environmental degradation amounting to visible brown air, smog and flammable water. The constituents of the 42nd district in California need a representative who will represent and defend their rights to a healthy, clean environment and not deny the science warning of the effects of climate change. Such important issues that affect the day-to-day lives of every American can no longer be ignored by a politician who claims to represent them. In 2014, voters in the 42nd district need to vote Calvert out and elect a representative who will defend the rights of the people over the rights of the corporations and other special interests.
Tim Sheridan is the Democratic Party's candidate in California's 42nd District which runs along the I-15 corridor roughly from Corona southeast to Temecula, and northeast along the I-215 and CA-79 corridors to Beaumont. It also includes the communities of Eastvale, Norco, Lake Elsinore, Wildomar, Murrieta, Menifee, Sun City, Winchester, Homeland and Nuevo. (See map)
See Tim Sheridan's Facebook Page:Sheridan for Congress-CA 42
Follow Tim on Twitter: @SheridanCA42
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