.png)
In light of this egregious greenwashing of Kelly Ayotte’s failed environmental record (in which Ayotte fails to even criticize Trump for his efforts to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement and dismantle the Clean Power Plan), we had to bring back #AyotteFactCheck once again.
Just because Ayotte is now working for a fake environmental group that exists simply to try to elect establishment Republicans (including those who deny climate change) does not mean she will be able to mislead voters about her own record of putting corporate special interests like the Koch Brothers before New Hampshire’s environment and natural resources.
Here are the facts:
Ayotte’s lifetime score from the League of Conservation (LCV) voters is a severely failing 38%
She voted with the Big Oil Koch Brothers nearly 90% of the time during her first four years in office and even voted to protect billions in tax breaks for the five biggest oil companies
In 2011, Ayotte voted for legislation the LCV called at the time “the greatest legislative assault ever on the environment” after the Koch Brothers political arm urged senators to do so
Ayottealso voted for an amendment that would “repeal the scientific finding by the EPA that greenhouse gases endanger human health and the environment,” and permanently block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, again after the Koch Brothers’ political arm urged senators to do so.
The Sierra Club said: "Kelly Ayotte has fought and spoken out against essential safeguards and protections for clean air, clean water and our climate far too often. She has voted to keep taxpayer subsidies for big oil in place, said that we need to “rein in the role of the EPA,” and supported the Keystone XL pipeline. In addition, Ayotte has voted to expand hazardous offshore oil and gas drilling, as well as for extreme attacks on clean water safeguards."
And just last week, Ayotte essentially admitted that she would support “repeal and replace” of the Clean Power Plan
Not only did Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions spend nearly $500k to try to re-elect Ayotte despite her own failing environmental record, but they also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to back the likes of environmental failures Richard Burr and Joe Heck, among many others:
Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina who has a lifetime score from the LCV of 8. The Koch Brothers give Burr a 98% lifetime rating on the environment, citing his support for the Keystone pipeline and opposition to the Clean Power Plan.
Former Congressman Joe Heck who also has a lifetime score from LCV of 8 and who LCV named one of their “Dirty Dozen” candidates and called "a climate change denier who would rather fight the expansion of clean renewable energy than protect the health of our families."
So what's "responsible energy"? The group’s website says, “Private companies and public investment are helping give Americans new choices in their sources of energy — natural gas, wind, solar, nuclear, hydro and geothermal power — and helping lower domestic energy prices. While we may not be able to completely rely on these sources of energy today, our leaders should be working with private companies to expand American exploration of these domestic alternative energy sources to ensure we can be a fully energy independent country.” Sounds like a long way of saying gas pipelines, folks.
###