Fueled by the carbon pollution giant Koch Industries, Tea Party Republicans in New Hampshire are attempting to scuttle the state’s involvement in the region’s successful climate program. Robocalls from Koch’s Americans for Prosperity group flooded the state over the weekend in support of a bill that would repeal participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which has cut greenhouse pollution and created jobs as a result of energy efficiency. On Wednesday, the state’s overwhelmingly Republican House of Representatives voted to support HB 519 by a nearly party-line vote of 246 to 104. The bill is premised on extreme climate denial, such as this explanation from Deputy Majority Leader Shawn Jasper (R-Hudson):
Neither man nor cow is responsible for global warming.
In reality, with greenhouse pollution from fossil fuels and industrial agriculture building up in the atmosphere at an increasing rate, the world is now hotter than it has ever been in recorded history. New England is unambiguously warming. Fueled by the warmer world, catastrophic rainfall is rising, as “exemplified by the ’100-year’ floodsthat have occurred in southern New Hampshire in 2005, 2006, 2007.”
Gov. John Lynch (D-NH), who has touted the success of RGGI in making the air healthier while increasing economic prosperity, is expected to veto the bill if it wins final passage, but Republicans hold veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the New Hampshire legislature.
No comments:
Post a Comment