The Polluters' End Run

Pay for play politics has the upper hand in Washington.  Democrats are reeling from the defeat in Massachusetts, so conservatives and their corporate sponsors are taking advantage and moving to gut the Clean Air Act {04.02.07}.  Since the debacle of the Copenhagen climate conference, the EPA's rule making concerning greenhouse gas emissions as a pollutant that endangers public health, is the best hope for doing something to curb global warming.  Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is fronting for a bill written by the coal lobby that curtails the EPA's authority to regulate carbon dioxide.  The two lobbyists involved are former members of the Regime that overturned a Clinton era rule to regulate CO2.  Jeffery Holmstead now works for the law firm of Bracewell & Gulliani as a registered lobbyist.  He has lobbied for Arch Coal and Duke Energy, an electrical utility company.  Roger Martella is a partner at Sidley Austin LLP.  Martella has lobbied for the National Alliance of Forest Owners.   Murkowski received $389,313 in political contributions from the electrical utilities industry, while the oil and gas industry has donated $365,813 to her campaign fund.  Holmstead also represents the Southern Co. which owns three power plants that topped the list of U.S. coal fired sources of carbon dioxide.  The nexus is there for any person--not just an alleged "doctrinaire Marxist"-- to see. Fight back against this gentile form of bribery by calling their representatives and demand that Murkowski's amendment be defeated.