PRESS STATEMENT

New leadership faces immense challenges, questions
Will they embrace the future or cling to the past?

Statement of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund President Rodger Schlickeisen

“Those who predicted a large turnover of House and Senate seats were right.  Those who predicted that a vote for climate change legislation would be a significant factor in that turnover were wrong. In fact, the issue was rarely mentioned during election coverage and roughly the same percentage of incumbent Senate Democrats lost their seats as incumbent House Democrats with no climate change vote in the Senate.  This was an election about unhappiness over the economy, first and last.  And the majority paid the price.

“But the campaign is now over and it’s time to see if the new House leadership can turn its heated campaign rhetoric into effective policy solutions that address pressing issues people care about like clean air, clean water, protection of our wildlife and natural resources and the threats posed by global warming.

“The last time the Republicans had a hand on the policy reins, lobbyists for Big Oil, Big Mining, Big Timber, and Big Development got essentially whatever they wanted.  Will the new House leadership follow the same path?

“The last time the Republicans were in charge in Washington, America ceded its global leadership role on energy policy. We stagnated in an old economy focused on dirty fossil fuels while the rest of the world began the quest for a clean energy global economy.   Will the new House leadership perpetuate that?

“Times have changed.  The jobs of tomorrow will be clean energy jobs.  Any responsible job-creation policy − any responsible economic policy − will embrace this simple fact.  The question is: will the new House leadership?”

 

###

The Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund (www.defendersactionfund.org) provides a powerful voice in Washington to Americans who value our conservation heritage. Through grassroots lobbying, issue advocacy and political campaigns, the Action Fund champions those laws and lawmakers that protect wildlife and wild places while working against those that do them harm.