The mid-term elections continue to dominate the August congressional recess. Members of Congress will go on campaigning for two more weeks before returning to Washington, D.C. in mid-September. 1Sky and our allies, including 350 and Energy Action Coalition, continue to hammer members of Congress to protect the Clean Air Act and work to address our addiction to fossil fuels and the climate crisis. See coverage in the New York Times.
Congressional Timeline:
9/13: Congress returns from recess
10/8: Target adjournment for House
11/2: Election Day
Key Primary Results
In the Alaska Republican Primary, tea party candidate Joe Miller is on pace to defeat Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) with a 1,900-vote lead with only a few thousand absentee ballots still being counted. Miller is a climate denier who consistently accuses Senator Murkowski of being too moderate on energy issues. This close defeat brings the political effectiveness of Senator Murkowski's attacks on the Clean Air Act into question. Senator Murkowski moved to the right on the issue of Clean Air Act regulations, but was still attacked as a more liberal candidate on energy in general. In the process, Senator Murkowski suffered in-state public criticism for her actions, which certainly didn't help her in such a tight race.
The Anchorage Daily News honed in on the fact that lobbyists helped write Senator Murkowsk's Dirty Air Act. Meanwhile, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) ran TV ads attacking Senator Murkowski for prioritizing out-of-state polluters over the people of Alaska:
Friends of the Earth ran Alaska radio ads (.mp3) highlighting her contributions from corporate polluters and their lobbyists, and Greenpeace's PolluterHarmony mocked her close ties to former Bush administration officials working on behalf of utilities and coal companies to gut the Clean Air Act:
