From Progress Virginia:
Virginia Beach is Flooding but the Trump-Pence Administration Doesn’t Believe in Climate Change
Virginia Beach, Virginia— Donald Trump’s Vice President, Mike Pence, will be hosting a get out the vote rally with Virginia Beach Republicans on Saturday, and we are sure that real action on climate change will not be a part of the agenda. Trump and Pence don’t believe in climate change, but people who live in Virginia Beach are already seeing the impacts of it as more homes are being flooded or at increased risk of being flooded. Virginia Beach Republicans are taking their marching orders from the Trump-Pence administration and voting against important measures to combat climate change, like Republican Senator Bill DeSteph who voted to prohibit the state from joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a program to reduce dangerous carbon emissions from power plants by 30% over the next decade and lower energy bills. Delegate David Yancey received a “D” from the Sierra Club after voting in support of a bill that uses taxpayer dollars to subsidize the coal industry in the form of coal tax credits. The Trump-Pence administration has received a lot of backlash due to their purposeless policies on environmental preservation. In fact, the Department of Energy was sued by environmental groups for ignoring five Obama-era energy-efficiency rules.
Virginians made it clear in 2016 that we don’t support the Trump-Pence agenda. We rejected Trump-style politics again in 2017 and 2018, and we will again in 2019. The Trump-Pence agenda ignores climate change. But as Virginia Beach suffers from erosion and flooding, voters in need real action on the issues that impact them and their families, not politicians who will put the corporate special interests ahead of the families who are dealing with the impacts of climate change every day.
“Everyone should have the opportunity to live and work in a thriving community without the fear of flooding or climate change,” Anna Scholl, Executive Director of Progress Virginia, said. “Virginia Beach Republicans have proven that they side with big corporations and the wealthy few when it comes to environmental protection, supporting policies that increase profits at the expense of our environment, our communities, and our natural resources. When voters go to the polls on November 5, we’ll be voting for people who will look out for us and our families by passing laws to force polluting monopolies to pay for the cost of poisoning our air, water, and land.”
Background:
- The Trump-Pence administration canceled a requirement for oil and gas companies to report methane emissions.
- The Trump-Pence administration announced intent to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement.
- The Trump administration proposed limiting the ability of individuals and communities to challenge E.P.A.-issued pollution permits before a panel of agency judges.
- In 2009, VP Mike Pence said, “I think the science is very mixed on the subject of global warming.” As the governor of Indiana, Pence sued the EPA to block the Clean Power Plan, the Obama-era plan aimed to combat global warming.
- HB2611 proposed by Republican Delegate Charles D. Poindexter would have prohibited the governor or any state agency from adopting any regulation establishing a regional carbon pollution reduction program or state participation in the trading of carbon pollution allowances in a regional market. If passed, the bill would have required that both houses of the General Assembly each approve, by a two-thirds vote, any coordination or participation by Virginia in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) or other multi-state market for trading carbon pollution allowances.
- Delegate Jason Miyares, Delegate David Yancey, Delegate Chris Stolle all received a “D” rating from the Sierra Club due to their voting records on environmental issues.
- 84% of voters say that the state should do more to provide incentives for energy efficiency.
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