The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Koch brothers and big oil won quiet but major victories in the U.S. House last week and five of Louisiana’s six-man congressional delegation were complicit in efforts to thwart efforts to protect the environment.
Republican Reps. Steve Scalise, Charles Boustany, John Fleming, Ralph Abraham and Garrett Graves voted in lock step on three separate measures dealing with environmental issues the outcomes of which were certain to please ALEC and corporate interests opposed to issues important to environmentalists. Rep. Cedrick Richmond was the lone holdout on each of the bills.
The five Republicans voted in favor of two House resolutions detrimental to environmental proponents and against two bills opposed by those same interests.
The two resolutions supported by Scalise, Boustany, Fleming, Abraham and Graves included:
- A proposal to restructure the Environmental Protection Agency’s 52-member Science Advisory Board. Included in that restructuring was a proposal to reduce academic representation on the board while expanding corporate membership. The vote to give corporations a stronger voice in denying climate change was 236-181 in favor of HR 1029 which now goes to the Senate.
- Approval of HR 1030 by a 241-175 vote to kill certain environmental rules unless all data from supporting studies is made public so that the study could be independently replicated—including confidential health information about participants.
The five Republicans joined with the majority to defeat one other provision contained in the two House resolutions cited above as they defied all logic in voting down by 179-237 an amendment to HR 1029 by Democrats that would have denied seats on the EPA Science Advisory Board to scientists whose research is funded by firms convicted of major environmental crimes.
It was recently revealed that one scientist, Dr. Willie Soon, who has denied evidence of climate change, received $1.25 million to underwrite his research denying climate change from ExxonMobil and Koch Industries. Koch alone has funneled some $73 million to groups denying climate change.
It would certainly appear that big oil has invested heavily in the futures of a certain five Republican congressmen from Louisiana and that those investments are paying huge dividends.
Louisiana Voice 
Yawn! The Koch brothers are donating to principles that believe in. At least they aren’t trying to destroy the country like Soros. Why don’t you write about the President being an anti-Semite?
“…aren’t trying to destroy the country”? You remind me of that line in the Eagles song Already Gone: “When you look up in the sky at night/you can see the stars and still not see the light.”
Afraid I’m going to have to take exception to that claim that can only be made by a Koch head. They are the primary underwriters of ALEC, which is doing everything within its power to hold down wages by defeating any increase in the minimum wage. ALEC also is attempting to privatize state universities, which will put a college education out of reach to all but the most wealthy; fighting equal pay for women; fighting any proposal that protects workers—from health care to worker safety to worker’s comp to salaries to retirement; fighting proposals to help the environment; supporting the Wall Street bankers, and the list goes on and on.
Instead of suggesting I write about an anti-Semite Obama, perhaps you should take another sip of the Kochs’ number 2 West Texas Crude Aid.
Why don’t you go pound sand…
Oh never mind. 👿
Of course that was for Bob N.
Of course.
🙂
This is truly a failure to represent anybody but industry when Louisiana has some of the greatest environmental hazards in the country. Will anybody remember these votes in the future? Denying climate change is one thing. Not doing everything possible to protect our air, water, and land from being poisoned is another and is unforgivable no matter how one might feel about climate change or the effect of pollution on it.
It’s not only the Koch Brothers! It’s the wealthy elite 1% group who own/control the transnational corporations, who’ve bought off our state legislators and our members in Congress, in both parties. They are WHO set policies and military interventions in the USA and countries around the world, to protect their interest. http://www.projectcensored.org/the-global-1-exposing-the-transnational-ruling-class/ They are the same group who in 1933, members of the American Liberty League, who was behind the failed coup to oust FDR. They were the members of PNAC.
You tell him, Tom! You might as well quit trolling here, BOB! No sheep in this think tank!
Sycophants.
You mean like Jindal sycophants?
I mean like Koch Brothers sycophants, oh wait, that would be like bobby, too, never mind.