Senator Blanche Lincoln gave her reaction to President Obama’s national address regarding the BP oil spill. And, lest ye be worried that she no longer thinks voters are complete morons who will buy anything she says, she made sure to continue that quaint little meme.
Lincoln:
As we move forward, we must ensure that we are holding BP accountable, preventing future disasters, and steering our country toward a cleaner energy future. I am particularly focused on creating jobs for Arkansas in a new energy economy and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
The starting point for achieving these goals is the bipartisan energy bill I worked to pass out of the Senate Energy Committee last year that includes a number of initiatives to increase our renewable energy resources and energy efficiency.
That bill, the American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009, originally would have required 20% of American’s energy to come from renewable resources by 2021, with up to one-fourth met by efficiency measures. Lincoln refused to support the mandate, however, until that number was lowered to 15%, still with up to one-fourth met through efficiency. So, yes, she technically “worked to pass [the bill] out of the Senate Energy Committee last year;” she just omits that the “work” she did was to weaken the bill before she would agree to it.
What’s worse, and despite Lincoln’s self-congratulatory back-patting, environmental groups and Senate leaders who actually have shown a history of pushing for real environmental change agree that passing a clean energy mandate without simultaneously addressing carbon emissions does little to nothing for the long-term health of the environment. None other than Lincoln’s political savior, former President Bill Clinton, has spoken at length around the world on the need to reduce carbon emissions if we are serious about climate change legislation. Yet, as discussed earlier today, voted with Big Oil in favor of the Murkowski Amendment last week. Add to this Lincoln’s previously mentioned efforts (with nine other Senate Dems) to kill the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008, her statement that the Waxman-Markey bill passed by the House was “a complete non-starter,” and her not-publicized-enough comments about climate legislation upon taking her position as head of the Agriculture Committee last September, and what you have is a portrait of someone who literally has no business talking about her “work[] to pass” climate change legislation.
I mean, unless she is speaking poorly of her efforts. In that case, she would be imminently qualified.
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