One Wisconsin Now

John McCain has made energy his primary issue in recent weeks. It seems to be a strange choice for a U.S. Senator that has skipped every major energy vote in the last two years. That means that McCain was AWOL on 15 important votes on things like renewable energies, energy efficiency, biofuels, and even offshore drilling. Over the last two years McCain has shown no interest in our energy crisis or in the many solutions offered by his colleagues in Congress. Now suddenly, when he is in the midst of a presidential campaign, McCain has made energy issue number one. Someone should tell him that his actions speak much louder than his words.

Perhaps it is McCain’s extended lack of interest in energy that has caused him to ridicule his opponent for talking about energy efficiency moves like inflating tires properly and getting regular tune-ups. McCain used only a portion of that commentary to mock his opponent without looking at the actual data about how much the simple acts would save. The Bush Administration estimates that expanded offshore drilling (McCain’s newfound passion) would meet 1 percent of our demand some two decades from now. Compare that to the instant 3 percent improvement in gas mileage by keeping tires inflated and the 4 percent improvement by doing regular maintenance. Even Republican Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger (CA) and Charlie Crist (FL) have made the same common sense point that McCain and the right wing are now mocking. It looks like the only joke here is McCain’s plan to continue selling out to Big Oil in a losing effort to drill our way out of an energy crisis. Perhaps McCain would do less damage if he just went back to ignoring these important energy issues. 

Update:  Now McCain has decided to sumbit to common knowledge and has said that now he doesn't disagree with Obama on the importance of tire pressure.  McCain reportedly said, "I don’t disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it."  Naturally his campaign continues to mock the idea.

Former Assembly Speaker John Gard has scheduled several town-hall meetings that he says will focus on gas prices. Unfortunately his positions on our addiction to oil is no different than the failed policies of the most unpopular president in history, George W. Bush. More specifically Gard is talking about giving Big Oil a free pass to dig up and take over wherever they think that they can find oil. Whether it is endangering pristine areas of wildlife or erecting Big Oil monuments right off our coasts, Gard’s folly is trying to drill our way out of this energy crisis. Even some of his fellow Republicans do not agree with this shortsighted gamble for what is sure to be a very limited gain.

While Gard is busy promoting Big Oil’s self serving agenda, I wonder if he will take a moment to correct himself on a recent related claim. Talking Points memo reported recently that Gard parroted a conservative talking point that had been completely debunked. The conservative claim that China and other nations were drilling off the coast of Florida was repeated in a Gard flyer even after Dick Cheney had to admit that it was not factual. When reporters for Talking Points Memo called the Gard operation to ask them about the misinformation, they were given several different false and conflicting answers. Perhaps it would be good for John Gard to take a moment during the town hall meetings to explain why he put out such inaccurate information for public consumption. Like his energy policy in general, the flyer demonstrates the length that he will go to in order to protect Big Oil and their narrow interests.

Recently presidential candidate John McCain took a trip to Iowa where he visited some of the areas most damaged by the June flooding. McCain and crew ignored a request, from Iowa's governor, to forego the visit although Iowa officials feared the campaign visit may distract security from the state's massive flood recovery efforts. During his visit McCain took the opportunity to tell residents of an effected town "I am confident that there will be immediate relief".

Perhaps McCain's confidence comes from knowing that support is available through the recent Water Resources Development Act, a bill passed last year.

The Water Resources Development Act was passed in the Senate on November 9, 2007 with a Senate vote of 81-12. President Bush did veto the bill, but lawmakers were able to count enough votes to over-ride the veto. Both Democrats and Republicans chose to support this bill which appropriated $23 billion to critical projects including repairs to flood damage and wetland area, as well as preventing flooding to communities around the country. Among the small number of lawmakers opposing the bill included Senator McCain: although he was not present for the vote, McCain vocally opposed it.

Last year McCain said that he opposed the $23 billion Water Resources Development Act because it included projects he considered wasteful. The program funds the production of levees and flood prevention programs which at the time of the vote McCain considered "pork".

Today, thousands of Americans are still piecing together the remains from the early June floods. Instead of offering kind words to those most affected by natural disasters, maybe next time McCain will support positive legislation before the storm hits.

Anyone that is watching television in the state of Wisconsin has probably seen the new John McCain ad on the environment. The ad over-reaches trying to put a happy face on John McCain’s record in the Senate. Although the ad tries to paint McCain as a “maverick” on the environment, reality shows that his departures from the Bush party line are rare at best. Conveniently, just after starting the current ad buy, McCain provided us with the latest example of why he is McSame as Bush on the environment.

This week both Bush and McCain pushed an oil industry plan to end the federal ban on offshore drilling. The oil industry is hardly known for its protective policies over the environment. Actually in many ways the most serious environmental issues of our day can, in some way, be laid at their feet. Yet this same oil industry appears to be the policy guide for both Bush and McCain on offshore drilling.

Yesterday, the John McCain camp issued a press release in conjunction with a new ad touting Sen. McCain’s record on the environment. See the ad for yourself on the YouTube(s).

“Five years ago,” says the ad, “John McCain stood up to the President and sounded the alarm on global warming.” As proof of his maverickiness, the creators of the ad were able to scrape together just a single UPI article titled, “McCain climate views clash with GOP.” The article is actually less than a month old. The political director for the Sierra Club said Sen. McCain "is using the environment as a way to portray himself as being different from George Bush. But the reality is that he isn't."

This week Senator John McCain is focusing on the environment and climate change. Although he has been vocal about the issue on the stump, his actual voting record is both inconsistent and severely lacking. In reaction to McCain’s speech Monday, League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski commented that “he has not substantively improved his plan over the bill he introduced years ago – legislation that the science now shows is out of date.”

John McCain’s lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters is a pathetic 24 percent. Despite his focus this week, he has managed to miss every major vote on the environment during the 110th Congress. That telling record gives him one big ZERO on the most recent LCV scorecard. Given McCain’s record on the environment, it is difficult to take anything that he says seriously.

Digging a little deeper on Sen. John McCain’s environmental record yields some scary remains indeed. Turns out he’s pretty much buried any previous attempts to work on environmental concerns, and any comments he makes on global warming, energy and the environmental are little more than double talk.

According to the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), McCain’s lifetime LCV score comes in at a paltry 24 percent, showing what the organization calls “a wavering commitment to America’s environment."

Want to help unearth the truth about McCain?

Guess who is involved in yet another lawsuit against the State of Wisconsin? Why it is Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce of course! They have filed a lawsuit, along with other business interests, against the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Apparently they want the DNR to suspend rulemaking on new pollution limits for power plants. They claim that they are not challenging the merit of the proposed rule. Instead their feathers are ruffled over what sounds like a very technical issue.

WMC claims that they were not given notice of the proposed rules before the start of the rulemaking process. Some might consider this to be using a legal “loophole” or a “technicality” just to undermine the new rule. Are they willing to rush off to court and sacrifice public health and the environment because of a “technicality”?

That’s funny, for some reason I thought they were against legal “technicalities” and “loopholes”. In any case, someone should call WMC and tell them to stand up for the environment and public health - not technicalities! Heck, if someone had the cash, they could even run a scary ad about it.

Former Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson knew that if the environment was to be a priority on the national agenda, it would be the people, not the politicians, who put it there.

So, in 1970, Senator Nelson announced a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the environment; he called it Earth Day.

Thirty-eight years ago, the first Earth Day demonstration saw an overwhelming 20 million participants. The sheer numbers got the attention of Congress and led to the enactment of some of our most treasured environmental laws.

But as I said in an Earth Day speech at Edgewood College, we are a far cry from realizing Nelson’s dream of a world where our waters are unpolluted, our air clean, and our planet preserved for future generations.

The UW-Milwaukee Chapter of Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters. SHAC and University Housing are hosting a river and litter clean up this Saturday in River West. The events will take place at Sandburg and RiverView dorms at 10:30am. Afterward, join other community organizations and newly elected Alderman Nik Kovac for an Eco-Jam (live music) at the new RiverView dorm.

For more information please contact Adrienne Roach at adrienne@conservationvoters.org

To see a flier, visit the WLCV blog http://www.conservationvoters.org/blog/?p=58

In 2005 Great Lakes Governors signed off on an agreement to protect our region’s most important asset, the Great Lakes. To be implemented the compact had to be approved by all of the Great Lakes state legislatures. Earlier this year the Wisconsin State Senate finally approved the compact by an overwhelming 26-6 vote. Unfortunately the Assembly leadership put the breaks on approving the compact and allowed the legislative session to end without taking a vote on it.

At a press conference in New Berlin today, Governor Doyle, Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford), and Senator Mark Miller (D-Monona)announced that a deal had been struck on the compact. All of the details have not been fully laid out but it appears that Wisconsin will finally join the other states in ratifying this important agreement to protect our most valuable resource. Understanding the urgency of the situation, Governor Doyle has called for a special session on April 17, to vote on the compact. There should be no more delay, the legislature should finally ratify the Great Lakes Compact.

Last week the leadership in the State Assembly killed two bills that would have restored Natural Resources Board appointment authority of the DNR Secretary. They did this despite the overwhelming support for the bills by hunters, anglers, and a broad array of legislators. The Senate version of the bill passed by a strong bipartisan 21-12 vote and the Assembly had forty-two sponsors. Virtually all Assembly Democrats supported the bill and a majority of Assembly Republicans also supported it. So why was the bill killed by the Assembly leadership?

Unfortunately, it seems that this happened because of the opposition by powerful business interests, like Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and others. So even though a large and bipartisan majority of legislators supported the bill, the Assembly leadership decided to cave to the well moneyed business interests. WMC and the other special interests that objected to this bill spent $1.8 million on legislators in 2006 alone. It seems clear that the Assembly leadership are more beholden to them than to their own members or the 1.6 million hunters and anglers in the state.