My hometown’s congressman, Fred Upton (R-MI) has become very indecisive on environmental issues lately. Actually, come to think of it, he’s also indecisive on human rights issues—back in December he voted against a Child Marriage Prevention bill he co-sponsored (?!?!?!?). More on his child marriage debacle here.
Anyway, I’ve got a new column in the Kalamazoo Gazette on Fred’s search for a backbone on energy and climate change issues…
Does Representative Upton think that we’re not paying attention? Does he think that no one notices this kind of flip-flopping? Does he think that it doesn’t matter? It’s one thing to disagree with someone else on environmental issues. It’s entirely another to disagree with yourself. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter if you agree with “New Fred” or with “Old Fred.” What matters is that he doesn’t appear to have any convictions on these matters. For Fred Upton, sometimes climate change is real and serious — and sometimes it isn’t.
The rest is at the Gazette’s website.
For what it’s worth, Pete Altman over at NRDC has some interesting polling data that shows that a substantial majority of Upton’s constituents are opposed to the congressman’s new attacks on the EPA.
Being a congressman is HARD! You have to make DECISIONS and STICK TO THEM! It’s not FAIR!
Poor Fred.
Perhaps Rep. Upton woke up to the fact that Al Gore’s way to wealth is a hoax and that climate change is a natural occurance and not influenced by what man does. That does not mean clean air is not a good thing or that alternative energy isn’t viable. Many feel that the alternatives should be market driven not supported by government subsidies.
Posted by Dick | February 13, 2011, 7:04 pm1) The scientific data on climate change aren’t ambiguous. Here’s a summary, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s data. The globe appears to have cooled about a quarter-degree from the year 1000 until the mid-19th century (cooled about a quarter-degree in 850 years). Since that point, the globe has warmed at an alarmingly fast rate…along the lines of at least 1 degree Celsius (rose 1 degree in 150 years).
This abrupt shift starts at the very moment that humans begin combusting fossil fuels on an industrial level. Put another way, as humans began to harness the energy of carbon-releasing chemical reactions on a massive scale, the level of CO2 (and CH4, among other greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere dramatically rose, and the temperature rose with it.
2) Cap-and-trade regulation is a market-driven form of policy. Upton was for it in the 1990s. Now he isn’t. He continues to favor government subsidies in many forms…some relevant to environmental policy and some not.
Posted by CPW | February 13, 2011, 7:15 pmI have voted for Fred since Wolpe was “engineered” out.
The “new” Fred is about to lose my vote.
Posted by Mike Keenan | February 14, 2011, 6:32 pmThis seems to be a common sentiment…I’ve heard from a lot of former Upton supporters in the past day.
Posted by CPW | February 14, 2011, 7:17 pm