In the middle of the hottest July on record, Republicans are not just denying there is a problem — they are actively working to make it worse. Hunter has a post up quoting Republicans blowing off the reports of record heat. Aldous J. Pennyfarthing unloads on the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint on how they plan to roll back all action to deal with climate change.
David Sirota’s newsletter The Lever has a writeup of how House Republicans are inserting poison pills into critical budget legislation to deliberately block action on climate. (There’s also an audio version at the link below.)
House Republicans are helping their fossil fuel donors with legislative fine print that would block climate action.
Sirota, reporting along with Matthew Cunningham-Cook, has done a dive into pending budget legislation and uncovered at least a dozen provisions inserted into 4 spending bills that will block climate action. The report names names, spells out the details — and who is providing the money that keeps these Congress critters on the payroll.
As scientists warn of a mass extinction and ecological tipping points, congressional Republicans are helping their fossil fuel industry donors by quietly inserting provisions into annual spending bills designed to bar the American government from combating and researching climate change, according to the fine print of legislative text reviewed by The Lever. Some provisions also require the leasing of federal lands and waters for oil and gas development, while potentially limiting such leases for wind power.
In all, Republican leaders have added at least a dozen such environmental provisions to four annual government spending bills as property damage and death tolls mount from historic heat waves, floods, and wildfires.
By adding the provisions to annual must-pass spending bills, Republicans who control the U.S. House are attempting to force Senate Democrats to choose between either accepting them or blocking the spending bills and shutting down the government.
Here’s an example from the report:
The GOP bills are currently in the House Appropriations Committee, chaired by Texas Republican Rep. Kay Granger, who has received nearly $1.2 million from the oil and gas sector over the course of her career in Congress. Her second-largest career campaign contributor is the oil and gas industry, and she brags on her government website that she has fought to prevent spending to combat climate change.
And of course, there’s this:
Granger’s congressional district has been grappling with a heat-related public health crisis.
There’s more: Read the whole thing. The report describes what the GOP provisions will do. Here’s some of the categories this Republican climate sabotage falls into:
- Blocking Fisheries Research As Oceans Boil
- Requiring Offshore Oil/Gas Leases, Slowing Wind Power Leases
- Defunding Global Climate Investments
Sirota and Cunningham-Cook name names, what they are doing, and just how much money climate denying interests have invested in them.
- Republican Rep. Hal Rogers, who hails from the coal-rich state of Kentucky and whose top career campaign contributors include donors from the mining and fossil fuel industries.
- Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Id.), who has received nearly $900,000 in campaign contributions from electric utility interests during the course of his career, as well as roughly $440,000 from oil and gas industry donors.
- Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), who has received nearly $430,000 in campaign contributions from the energy and natural resources industry during his time in office.
- Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) who has received more than $175,000 from oil and gas interests during his career.
- Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), whose top career campaign contributors include donors from agribusiness and the fossil fuel industry.
This is likely just the tip of the (melting) iceberg; denying climate change is now Republican doctrine at all levels — although they’re still happy to get Federal relief for climate disasters and dollars for infrastructure spending in their districts that they voted against.
These provisions are being inserted in vital budget bills, daring Democrats to either refuse to pass them and shut down government, or let this sabotage through.
I expect that sooner than might be expected, these actions by Republicans and their part in them will come to be seen as crimes against humanity and the biosphere that maintains life on earth. Unfortunately it’s not likely to happen until the body count gets too high to ignore, and likely only if it is Republican bodies among the donor classes.
I’m not one to promote violence against individuals, but I can’t help but wonder how their attitudes might adjust if they no longer had access to working air conditioning in their offices, their homes, and their vehicles…
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