Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes railed against Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell at the Fancy Farm picnic Saturday afternoon. (By Matt Stone, The Courier-Journal) Aug. 3, 2013
With the Senate race back to fighting over women’s issues, I’m still not ready to leave behind questions of Democratic candidate Alison Lundergand Grimes and the environment — specifically climate change.
Recall last week the subject was coal and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants. Both Sen. Mitch McConnell and Grimes voiced their strong opposition.
From a Grimes press release:
After calling on the President to do the right thing, I am deeply disappointed in today’s EPA ruling. Yet again President Obama’s administration has taken direct aim at Kentucky jobs. The EPA’s ruling practically prohibits construction of new coal-fired plants, which will threaten Kentucky jobs and raise energy prices that hurt Kentucky’s middle class families.
This is Kentucky and that’s not unexpected for Republicans and Democrats to agree to target efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. We are a lot like West Virginia in that respect. Remember how former Gov. Joe Manchin got elected to the U.S. Senate in West Virginia — taking target practice on the now-failed cap-and-trade bill?
But part of the Democratic base is made up of people who not only care about the environment, but want their government to do something about arguably the biggest threat to the planet — climate change. And overall, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to accept the science, with Tea Party Republicans the least likely.
We already knew McConnell is a climate change skeptic. But what of Grimes, his would-be challenger should McConnell safely navigate the Republican primary?
I’ve been asking her spokeswoman, Charli Norton, for an interview with Ms. Grimes, or at least a statement from the candidate, who is also the Kentucky Secretary of State, to go over questions of coal and climate. We know she doesn’t want new coal fired power plants regulated — that much was made clear in her statements last week.
But does she also deny what mainstream science has found — that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities such as burning fossil fuels is causing global warming, and that some of its impacts are already being detected?
And if she accepts the grim and urgent forecast that scientists have made about our future, how does she politically and morally justify not taking action now?
Friday, I got my first response to that question. It did not come from the candidate, but Norton:
So I have been asking Grimes’ PR person, Charly Norton, for Grimes’ views on climate change this week. Norton sent the following, which still leaves room for plenty of followup questions but apparently will have to do for now:
Alison understands the reality of climate change. But what she doesn’t support is unnecessary regulation that hurts Kentuckians. She will push for a broader approach that invests federal money in clean coal technology and in helping the industry become more competitive in a changing marketplace. While it is important to protect the environment, it is just as important to make sure the men and women of Kentucky are able to provide for their families. As Senator, Alison will work to protect the jobs of hardworking Kentuckians in any solution to the changing climate.
Whether it matters or not, and it may well not, that answer is not going to make Kentucky environmental advocates happy. The Sierra Club, for example, has yet to make any endorsement in the race, and last week, one Sierra Club staffer told me that club members were deeply disappointed in Grimes’ position on coal and climate.
From Thomas Pearce, a Sierra Club representative:
The Sierra Club will continue to push Alison Grimes to embrace new carbon regulations from the Obama administration and push for investments in renewable energy like solar and wind in the state of Kentucky and call for an end to the war that King Coal is waging on our mountains, our air, and our waterways. The 13% of Kentucky citizens that suffer from asthma deserve protection from the harmful effects of coal and Kentucky workers deserve to have a place in a new economy without coal.
