Gina McCarthy’s long-delayed confirmation saga finally came to a close today as the Senate voted to confirm the new EPA Administrator in a 59-40 bipartisan vote.
This is good news for the planet as the vote finally allows the experienced and highly regarded McCarthy to get on with the business of protecting our environment, but the vote also serves to underscore a continuing problem in Washington: the 40 Senators voting against McCarthy would have voted against anyone who would even consider measures that could affect the fossil fuel industry.
McCarthy is a clearly qualified candidate with a history of bipartisan work, but these Senators have taken a combined total of nearly $25 million dollars from the fossil fuel industry – they’re bought and paid for by an industry set on disrupting our democracy and continuing the dirty status quo in order to protect their massive profits.
The key numbers breakdown:
- Combined contributions from fossil fuel industry to Senators voting against nomination: nearly $25 million
- Average dirty energy money per Senator voting against McCarthy’s confirmation: $620,000
- Average dirty energy money per Senator voting in favor of McCarthy’s confirmation: $207,000
That works out to 3 times the dirty energy money taken by those voting against McCarthy’s nomination than the average of those voting in favor.
Today’s victory shows that even the industry’s millions can’t stop progress, but the fossil fuel industry’s grip on Washington politics is still suffocating our democracy. Until dirty energy’s influence on our elected officials is ended, Administrator McCarthy (and for that matter, anyone fighting for a safe climate future) can expect fierce paid for opposition in the work to protect our air, water and communities.
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Want to crunch your own numbers? A breakdown of all the financials in this post can be found in Oil Change International’s Dirty Energy Money database: http://dirtyenergymoney.com.
Corporations now have the upper hand over people. The Supreme court made this mess over the last 100 years by giving more and more rights to corporations as they sued the government. (Corps. never sue to have more responsibilities.) Until now they can contribute unlimited money to sway elections, and influence congress, into giving them advantages that citizens don’t have. The only way to fix these decisions is to Amend the US Constitution to say “Corporations are not concidered people under the Constitution”, and that “Money is not free speech.”
Contact: MoveToAmend.org
Until Corporate power is reigned in we will always lose against them.
I believe you work for us now. Corporations are the few. We are the many. We want clean energy and a healthy world. That is your job. This is what you have dedicated your life to. You can be the one that turns this around. You could be a major player in the world we were meant to create.
Thank you for reading, and fulfilling your duties to yourself, your family, your friends, your neighbors, your office, your coworkers, your country, your people, people of other countries, your planet, and your God.
West Virginia DEMOCRAT Senator Joe Manchin joined his mostly Right Wing counterparts, In voting against this nomination….. Remember this, he is desperately trying
for a Vice Presidential bid under Hillary…