Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Lou Barletta targetted by enviromental group

The Natural Resources Defense Council is going after Congressman Lou Barletta for his votes to block new clean air regulations from the EPA. Last week the NRDC blasted Barletta and other PA US House members for voting for what they termed the "Fetal Poison Bill."

Fourteen PA Reps Have Dirty Secrets: They Support the "Fetal Poison Bill"

Who loses? Fetuses, babies and young children. Who wins? The 14 Pennsylvania members of Congress who are larding their campaign treasuries with dirty energy political contributions.
House bill 2681, the "Cement Sector Regulatory Relief Act of 2011" would repeal updates to Clean Air Act standards to reduce toxic emissions from cement plant,”
s – one of the biggest sources of mercury pollution in the US. It’s a “Fetal Poison Bill” because mercury exposure can cause serious brain damage to fetuses, babies and young children.





The NRDC has chart at Dirty Secrets that says that says Barletta has taken almost $ 80,000 from polluters.

Sticking to the party line that regulations kill jobs (they don't) Barletta sent out a fundraising email that seems to welcome the attack.

I supported delaying this job-killing regulation. Rather, they’ll resort to scare tactics.



Dear Gort --
The attacks keep coming. The latest is an accusation from a left-wing, radical environmentalist group that is accusing me of voting in favor of the “Fetal Poison Bill.” It’s an attack meant to grab headlines, which means there’s no truth to it...

Since taking control of the EPA, President Obama’s supporters have been putting forward radical new regulations not focused on protecting the environment, but rather to punish specific industries in this country. It’s a dangerous mix: a politically-motivated anti-business agenda and a struggling economy with 9% unemployment...

A recent EPA regulation, for example, would -- without Congressional intervention -- have resulted in the shuttering of nearly 20% of our nation’s domestic cement plants, putting thousands of jobs in jeopardy, and costing businesses $3.4 billion a year. The environmentalists won’t mention any of this when they tell you I supported delaying this job-killing regulation.



The President doesn't have an "anti-business agenda" and Barletta doesn't cite his assertion that 20% of cement plants would be closed. Do they just pass along this claptrap from a central source? I'm sure that SOP will correct me tomorrow.




Barletta spokesman Shawn Kelly and NRDC blogger Pete Altman had this exchange





“Claims that Rep. Barletta is ‘attacking’ the Clean Air Act are completely false. Not one of the roll call votes cited (#86, #140, #147, and #741) alters the Clean Air Act in any way. Every single vote cited keeps current EPA regulations in place and allows the EPA to continue to regulate pollutants. The roll call votes in question do not weaken or remove any EPA regulation currently in effect,”




Pete disputes that statement:





Denying the Facts: Representative Lou Barletta's True Record of Dirty Air Votes

Interestingly, Barletta’s team doesn’t bother denying the charge our ad actually makes, which is that he voted to let polluters dump more dangerous pollution into our air. And they deny charges we didn’t make – that Barletta voted to alter the Clean air Act and weaken and remove EPA regulations currently in effect.
We could have, though
read the list


Here is the ad:


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The GOP will have great spin stsories to defend these botes but the facts are there. Lou Barletta is voting to polute and he did vote to end Medicare. His idea of saving Social Security and Medicare is to gut them to the point that they are affordable for a blind man selling pencils. he programs themselves won't be worth a fart but they will be in some meger form of existance.