"Green" GOP Donors, PACs Shovel Money To Ayotte, Burr, Heck, Portman - As Do The Kochs
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This year’s GOP platform blasts “Democratic party environmental extremists, who must reach farther and demand more to sustain the illusion of an environmental crisis” and pledges to crack down on the Environmental Protection Agency. The party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, has called climate change a “hoax” over and over and over. And Congressional Republicans have done just about everything in their power to block attempts at cutting fossil fuel emissions and promoting clean energy.
So when Republican donors like Jay Faison say climate change is a real problem and his party needs to address it, people take notice. Last year Faison pledged $175 million to push the GOP toward climate action through his nonprofit ClearPath Foundation and its political arm, the ClearPath Action Fund. Faison says he wants to shift the focus from climate science to climate solutions — namely, clean energy.
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One of the biggest beneficiaries of the donors’ largesse is Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), on whom they have collectively spent over $1 million (at least $136,187 from ClearPath Action, $463,887 from CRES, $505,400 from Faison, $5,400 from Robertson, and $5,300 from Sabin) over the past two cycles. Ayotte’s record on climate and environmental issues is decidedly mixed. She’s demonstrated a willingness to break from her party of late, joining a handful of other Republican senators last year in voting yes on a symbolic amendment that acknowledged the substantial role of human activity in driving climate change. She also teamed up with three of her Republican colleagues to create a working group to discuss environmental protection and clean energy innovation.
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Another Republican incumbent locked in a tight race, and a key recipient of pro-climate GOP mega donor contributions, is Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC). Burr has gotten at least $391,816 in help from ClearPath Action, $120,100 from CRES, $10,400 from Faison, and $5,000 from Sabin since the start of 2014. Unlike Ayotte, Burr has made no discernable shift toward the left on climate or environmental issues. His lifetime LCV score is 7. While he voted for a symbolic amendment acknowledging the reality of climate change, he voted against two others that recognized the role of human activity. He opposes the Clean Power plan even though 66 percent of North Carolina voters support it, according to a poll conducted earlier this year. And he has voted to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases and to prohibit any further emissions reductions aimed at addressing climate change.
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https://thinkprogress.org/throwing-green-money-after-bad-5a1e55ef2eb9#.87yzurot6
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