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* Yesterday at 4:43 pm…
NRDC: Senator Kirk Votes to Ignore Climate Change
CHICAGO (November 17, 2015) – Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) voted for a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would block the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rule to cut dangerous carbon pollution from power plants. President Obama is expected to swiftly veto the parliamentary maneuver, which has rarely been successfully used by Congress.
The following is a statement by Henry Henderson, Midwest Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council:
“Senator Kirk admits that climate change is real and a huge threat to our future. But he votes to kill the only proposal out there to take action to meet the huge threat: the Clean Power Plan. If Senator Kirk opposes the best tool available we have to address climate change, then what is his solution to a problem he calls ‘too important to ignore’?
“The Clean Power Plan will reduce dangerous carbon pollution while creating good jobs, boost the economy and protect public health right here, right now in Illinois. Senator Kirk’s vote against the Clean Power Plan threatens these benefits for all of us — for today and for future generations. Senator Kirk should focus on the people over polluters.”
For more information please see the following:
-Poll showing Illinoisans Ready To Lead On Clean Energy - http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/hhenderson/polling_shows_illinoisans.html
-Henry Henderson Blog - Senator Kirk: If climate is too big to ignore around the world, it is too big to ignore here too: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/hhenderson/senator_kirk.html
-African American attitudes toward climate change that includes information from Chicago focus groups - http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/aquintero/poll_most_african-americans_co.html
* Yesterday at 6:19 pm…
UPDATED: NRDC: Senator Kirk Votes Against Climate Action Blocking Bill
CHICAGO (November 17, 2015) – Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) today voted against a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would have blocked the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rule to cut dangerous carbon pollution from power plants.
The following is a statement by Henry Henderson, Midwest Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council:
“Senator Kirk has gone against many in his party leadership that wished to block the Clean Power Plan. The Senator has noted that climate change is real and a huge threat to our future; and today he voted for action.
“The Clean Power Plan will reduce dangerous carbon pollution while creating good jobs, boost the economy and protect public health right here, right now in Illinois. Senator Kirk’s vote today keeps those benefits on the table for Illinoisans now and in the future. I hope that today’s vote forecasts things to come for Senator Kirk.”
NRDC ran ads this summer criticizing Senator Kirk for an earlier vote against the Clean Power Plan.
…Adding… The NRDC may have messed up, but some enviros sang Kirk’s praises after the vote…
Thank you @SenatorKirk & @SenatorDurbin 4 supporting the #CleanPowerPlan, jobs, clean air 4 IL #twill @ILCleanJobs https://t.co/lUrO9w6DEz
— Jack Darin (@jackdarin) November 18, 2015
.@SenatorKirk, thank you for listening & for voting to protect #CleanPowerPlan, a path to new jobs, better health & safer climate. #KirkEPA
— Illinois Clean Jobs (@ILCleanJobs) November 17, 2015
Thank you @SenatorKirk for standing up for families, jobs, veterans, the environment and the #CleanPowerPlan! Thank you for listening!!
— David Jakubiak (@DavidELPC) November 17, 2015
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 9:42 am
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Pathetic. The NRDC has spent millions upon millions to advance this legislation and they can’t even take 5 minutes to look at a roll call and see how people voted.
Comment by DecaturGuy Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 9:46 am
NRDC also among the first to congratulate President Dewey.
Comment by Century Club Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 9:48 am
And as a side note….kinda related.
If we continue to buy oil from the Middle East we fund those people who want to kill us. Then we spend Trillions in taxpayers money to try and protect ourselves from them.
So if climate change doesn’t kill us, the “terrorists” we fund will.
First Candidate for elective office that talks about this gets my interest. It’s more important than bustin’ unions!
Comment by Jack Stephens Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 9:50 am
===And as a side note….kinda related.
If we continue to buy oil from the Middle East we fund those people who want to kill us. Then we spend Trillions in taxpayers money to try and protect ourselves from them.
So if climate change doesn’t kill us, the “terrorists” we fund will.===
How many power plants in Illinois or the Midwest are fueled by petroleum? Answer: very few, and they are rarely used. Gas-fired power plants use natural gas, which tends to be sourced domestically, not gasoline.
This is not to diminish your point with regard to vehicle fuel, which is heavily oil dependent. But that has nothing to do with support for the Clean Power Plan, which does not regulate vehicle emissions.
Comment by Gasbag Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 10:01 am
Kirk had no choice but to cave to the carbon scare crowd. Yet another example of governance by fear.
Comment by NeverPoliticallyCorrect Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 10:09 am
@gasbag
Thanx. Always learn something new here!
JS
Comment by Jack Stephens Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 10:09 am
I like the first press release better.
Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 10:17 am
That’s not an “update.”
When you get it wrong, you issue a retraction and say “sorry, mea culpa.”
Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 10:23 am
Fracking has changed our world, that is - if you drop obsolete ideas about energy that paraded around as fact all our lives.
We are energy independent. Thanks to natural gas fracking. Oil prices are dropping beyond an ability of oil producers to profitably extract it from traditional methods through traditional sources. Pump prices? Still drive? Dropping.
Where do we get our electricity here in Illinois? From coal. Nearly all of it. Would you really want your Illinois senator to force Illinoisans to pay fines and higher prices so that places thousands of miles from here can keep generating energy through expensive solar and wind power?
Then - these people are wrong on so many levels. They don’t even want to know how a GOP incumbent senator actually voted. They just assume, then issue out their diatribe of crap, based upon their political beliefs. They don’t want to know any facts. They don’t want to debate or discuss. They just want us to agree with them, and they will do whatever and say whatever they think need to be done or said, to win.
No one wants to go back to the air and water quality we have left behind during the 20th Century. No one. Even though we all survived black skies and burning rivers, no one is advocating that we go back to the years when Chicago’s skyline was covered in black soot and the Wrigley Building had to be washed every year to remain white. There are no scary Republicans trying to undermine what they themselves passed and began during the Nixon administration.
Politics suck.
Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 10:27 am
More garbage coming out of D.C. It’s all going to be decided by the Supreme Court anyway. 10TH Amendment case.
We’ll see.
Comment by Judgment Day (on the road) Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 10:28 am
I thought they were just confused and were trying to put pressure on Kirk. I hadn’t realized they issued the realize claiming he had done something before he even voted. DOH! I don’t blame them for putting pressure on Kirk who had hinted he would support the resolution, but geez guys. Hold your fire until he actually, ya know, VOTES.
Comment by Chicago Cynic Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 10:36 am
What a bunch of rubes! Who runs their legislative program? It’s a shame that at a time when the environmental movement needs to be sharp and effective, they botch a simple play. No wonder the planet is burning up.
Comment by LBJ Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 10:46 am
VM, we generate a lot of electricity from coal in Illinois, but it’s only 43% (2014 US EIA). The biggest source of electricity in the state is nuclear at 48%. Wind makes up 5%, natural gas is used for 3%, and everything else is in the last 1%.
Comment by muon Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 10:55 am
Nice knee jerk reaction from the NRDC. You would think they would apologize for the erroneous first press release?
Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 11:02 am
Ah, Henry Henderson…still putting his foot in his mouth. Remember him from the days when he was the mayor’s recycling guru…and putting his moth in foot with community groups.
Comment by Former Hoosier Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 11:08 am
@VanillaMan
=Where do we get our electricity here in Illinois? From coal. Nearly all of it.=
Absolutely wrong, VM. Most of the power in Illinois comes from clean nuclear power, especially in the Chicago area.
Coal’s a dying DoDo bird in the US. Nuclear and natural gas are the future for electrical generation. Oil fired generation used to be mostly in the Northeast, but that’s going away as well.
The only remaining issue is what’s the best way to re-engage the coal mine workers after the mines close.
BTW, in Arizona we’re increasingly using natural gas powered vehicles. The technology’s been around for decades. Overall it’s MUCH less expensive and polluting than electric vehicles when you consider the polluting batteries and power generation pollution. No acid waste as there is from batteries nor particulate matter from burning coal, just CO, CO2, O2 and H2.
Calling CO2 a “pollutant” is a whole other argument….
Comment by Arizona Bob Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 11:08 am
=Nice knee jerk reaction from the NRDC.==
LOL They kicked before the hammer struck the knee.
Comment by walker Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 11:14 am
“Most of the power in Illinois comes from clean nuclear power, especially in the Chicago area.”
Absolutely nope, Bob.
Nuclear power still accounts for less than half of the electricity generated in Illinois.
http://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=IL#tabs-4
– MrJM
Comment by @MisterJayEm Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 11:25 am
A “huge threat”, “dangerous carbon”; why must they always understate the case?
Comment by Keyser Soze Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 12:47 pm
MrJM–Nuclear is 48%. You can call that less than half, but your “Absolutely nope” is nit-picking.
Comment by OldIllini Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 1:20 pm
Ummm…I don’t think that working people, especially in Southern Illinois, thought that this was a bad bill. Even the Congressional Budget Office says that EPA carbon standards will cost us jobs.
Do we sacrifice real-world jobs for the possibility that not reducing carbon may have consequences?
Comment by What? Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 1:23 pm
What? The number of jobs in the coal industry related to Illinois or even US coal plants is very small. Illinois burns Western (Powder River Basin) coal because of Illinois coal’s high sulphur content. The mining industry and its 5,000 jobs is increasingly devoted to export markets.
At worst, the Clean Power Plan is a wash for Illinois, but it’s probably a net positive because of clean energy and even nuclear jobs.
Comment by Chicago Cynic Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 1:54 pm
===Western (Powder River Basin) coal because of Illinois coal’s high sulphur content.===
True. And Western coal is high in mercury content, so pick your poison. Literally.
Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, Nov 18, 15 @ 2:20 pm