An embrace of Big Oil’s agenda for more government-subsidized drilling
and fewer protections for clean water is at the heart of Gov. Mitt
Romney’s official “environmental” platform as a Presidential candidate.
His running mate, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, has helped lead the charge in
Congress against EPA and against environmental and health protections.
On Clean Water Action’s scoring of 12 critical water and health protection votes, Ryan voted wrong every single time. “If it were possible to score Ryan lower than ‘0’ we’d do it,” says Clean Water Action’s Jennifer Peters, “given his role orchestrating Congressional attacks on clean water protections.”
But the worst news for the environment may very well lie at the top of the Romney-Ryan ticket. Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney demonstrated his extreme disconnect from fundamental environmental concerns shared by many Americans with this divisive attempt to garner laughs during his party’s recent national convention, “President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise... is to help you and your family.”
Ironically, the policies a Romney-Ryan administration would pursue if elected — policies which would reverse any hope of American leadership on solving climate change problems — would do grave economic and environmental harm to many American families.
Mitt Romney promises to eliminate incentives for solar and wind energy in favor of more drilling, fracking and mining for oil, coal, gas and other outdated, inefficient dirty energy sources. Tens of thousands of American jobs would be lost, and the impacts on air and water quality would be devastating.