FOUR IN CONGRESS NAMED CLEAN AIR "VILLAINS"

SENATORS FEINSTEIN, BOND, DORGAN AND REP. BARTON

http://www.cleanairtrust.org/villain.1103.html

The issue with Bond and Feinstein is the deal now in the Omnibus spending bill that allows California, but only California, to set its own air emissions standards for small engines.

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Kit Bond: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch branded Bond "Senator Smog" for his efforts to front for engine maker Briggs & Stratton, which sought to block California's attempt to set better clean air standards for lawn and garden equipment. Bond stooped to the lowest depths of demagoguery in his pro-polluter quest, claiming (based on a bogus study paid for by Briggs & Stratton) that these standards would send thousands of jobs to China and pose a significant fire risk.
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Dianne Feinstein: She was willing to sell out breathers in every other state in order, apparently, to remain on cozy terms with "Senator Smog."...In an incredible act of hypocrisy, Feinstein put out a press release bragging about her "victory." Will she be so eager to surrender again if (or is it when?) the auto lobby seeks to steal the rights of other states to adopt California car standards?
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Joe Barton: Barton has been dubbed "Smokey Joe" by the Dallas Morning News, and with reason: he inserted an amendment into the pork-folio known as the "energy bill" that would encourage the EPA to delay the deadline for achieving clean air standards in at least two dozen states...Barton is seeking to protect campaign contributors from the cement and electric power industries.
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Byron Dorgan: Of all of this month's villains, we are the most disappointed in Dorgan, who heads the Senate Democratic Policy Committee and postures as a defender of the environment. As one of the Democratic negotiators cut out of the closed-door Republican deal making on the energy bill, Dorgan was publicly critical of the dirty deal, even when it included a boondoggle ethanol provision aimed at funneling money into farm states like North Dakota....Dorgan's opposition suddenly stopped when -- in a last-minute flurry of apparent vote buying -- Rep. Barton added a provision to the energy bill that would help underwrite a coal plant in the "Upper Great Plains."
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more...

s_m

Feinstein has always been completely maddening. Not just because she's politically bi, but because, just when you begin to like her and trust her again, she does something so morally and politically stupid as vote for the Bush tax cut and the Medicare bill. She seems to almost pride herself on being politically autistic, a trait that the Republican bully boys, who pick on her unmercifully, just love.