This is the thirty-first article in a continuing series by the NRDC Action Fund on the environmental stances of candidates in key races around the country.
Textile mills (notably the Amoskeag Mills, once the world’s largest) previously defined Manchester, New Hampshire, driving its economy and attracting Irish and Greek immigrants. Today, however, it’s become a high-tech city with growth spreading into the surrounding wooded suburbs. New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District includes Manchester, the seacoast, and extends north to the White Mountain National Forest. Democrat Carol Shea-Porter has represented the area in the U.S. House since 2007. Republican Frank Guinta is challenging Shea-Porter in next week’s election.
Shea-Porter has been a consistent vote for clean energy and environmental protections while in Congress. She has earned a 96% career rating from the League of Conservation Voters (LCV). Last year Shea-Porter voted in favor of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), the first comprehensive clean energy and climate bill ever to pass a chamber of Congress. Following the vote, she said in a statement:
This bill represents fundamental changes in our nation’s energy policy that are long overdue. We cannot continue to deny the impact climate change is having on our environment and must act now to reduce global warming. In doing so, this bill will also create millions of new clean energy jobs, strengthen our national security, and protect our environment.
Recognizing her strong environmental record, the LCV has endorsed Shea-Porter’s reelection bid. In making their endorsement, LCV President Gene Karpinski said, “Representative Shea-Porter has been an important voice calling for investment in clean American energy to power economic growth in the 21st century. We are proud to endorse Representative Shea-Porter for re-election because she knows that our economic future depends upon putting Americans to work creating clean energy while reducing our dependence on foreign oil and curbing harmful global warming pollution.”
Guinta, on the other hand, has flip-flopped on clean energy and climate issues. While Mayor of Manchester, Guinta signed on to the U.S. Conference of Mayor Climate Protection Agreement, committing , among other things, to “urge the U.S. Congress to pass the bipartisan greenhouse gas reduction legislation, which would establish a national emission trading system.” But on the campaign trail he has criticized ACES as a “National Energy Tax” that will “cost New Hampshire more than $550 million and 4,900 jobs.” Truth is that researchers at Yale University, the University of Illinois, and the University of California have found that ACES would lead to $111 billion in GDP growth nationally, and create jobs in New Hampshire.
Guinta has also signed the Americans for Prosperity’s “No Climate Tax Pledge.” Americans for Prosperity is a dirty oil-funded think tank that supports the tea party movement. It is largely funded by the Koch brothers. As The New Yorker recently reported, the Koch brothers, private owners of Koch Industries (a conglomerate primarily in the oil business), have conducted a decades-long campaign promoting their radical worldview, which includes eliminating environmental regulations.
Guinta may have been for clean energy and climate legislation before he was against it, but now he’s joined the anti-environmental extremists, leaving little doubt on how he’d vote on these issues in Congress.
The NRDC Action Fund believes that it is important for the public in general, and the voters of specific Congressional districts, be aware of this information as they weigh their choices for November.