LCV: Does Roy Blunt Believe in America?

As the House Energy & Commerce Committee prepares to vote on a comprehensive clean energy plan, the League of Conservation Voters launched a pre-emptive campaign against Rep. Roy Blunt for his stated opposition to the bill, which would build an American clean energy economy.

The nonpartisan campaign is built around a hard-hitting TV ad, “Believe,” which urges people to call on Rep. Blunt to believe in America and our history as a “can-do” nation again.

“Rep Blunt is siding with Big Oil and saying no to millions of new clean energy jobs, and no to making America a global leader on energy. Why does he seem to have so little faith in American ingenuity and know-how?” said Gene Karpinski, President of the League of Conservation Voters.

Meanwhile in Blunt’s district, Lindsey Berger of Missouri State University headed up an effort to bring Missourians from across the state together for a solutions-oriented forum on energy solutions, one of 103 similar events co-sponsored by Focus the Nation, which 50 members of the House of Representatives and 20 Senators participated in. “It’s usually our leaders who call town halls on pressing issues,” said Lindsey Berger, an organizer at Missouri State University. “This time we’re inviting them to our Town Halls because our generation knows we don’t have time to wait to build a clean energy future.”

In addition to the TV ad, which will air across Missouri and heavily in the Springfield media market, LCV also launched online ads and a direct mail program to ensure that Missourians know that Rep. Blunt is opposed to creating good, American jobs in a clean, American energy sector.

Rep. Blunt is a member of the House Subcommittee on Energy & Environment, which is set to vote on The American Clean Energy & Security Act next week. Rep. Blunt released a statement on April 2, dismissing the bill despite numerous analyses showing that building a clean energy economy will create millions of new jobs.

The American Council on Capital Formation and the National Association of Manufacturers—industry friendly organizations—conducted an analysis of similar legislation and found that it would help create 340,000 new jobs in Missouri by 2030. (http://www.peri.umass.edu/emissions)

“For the past twenty years we’ve seen our imports of foreign oil increase and manufacturing jobs decrease,” Karpinski continued. “By opposing a comprehensive clean energy bill, Roy Blunt tells us that he’d like to see this trend continue.”

The “Believe” campaign is part of a nonpartisan effort to encourage key Members of the Energy and Commerce committee to pass a comprehensive clean energy and global warming bill in the next few weeks. LCV has created websites focusing on both Democratic and Republican Members of the committee, to highlight each Representative’s actions and statements during the debate on this bill.

The full script for “Believe” is below.

“Believe” – :30 TV

America is a can-do country.

We can create millions of new clean energy jobs and become a global leader in energy technology.

But Roy Blunt says no. No to clean energy. No to millions of new jobs.

At the same time, Blunt has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from Big Oil – and voted to hold America back.

Call Roy Blunt and tell him it’s time to start believing in America again.