John Mica Delays Action to Save the Red Snapper Population off Florida Coasts

[FayeforCure]

^Good point BT.  Now we need the Chinese to have a hippy boomer generation.  Despite however successful we may be at reducing our carbon footprint, China will make that irrelevant by the rate of their industrial expansion.  Until they get on board, most of what we do won't matter.  I'm not excusing us from doing our part, just making a point.

On a related note (you might want to look into this, Faye), we could drastically reduce atmospheric pollution by switching to hamburgers made from kangaroos.  They produce a fraction of the amount of methane compared to cows.  They also go great with snapper.

Thank you Captain Zissou for your more rational and reasoned response. Being a true leader, the US does not need to wait for China to do the right thing. The "we shouldn't do it because they don't do it" rationale is irresponsible, and also untrue in ragards to China. Though China's need for energy is going to continue to rise astronomically ( as with all developing nations), China has been at the fore-front of the green energy industry:

China Builds High Wall to Guard Energy Industry
Ariana Lindquist for The New York Times
The Daliang Wind Station located outside of Anxi in Gansu Province. China is now building six wind farms with a capacity of 10,000 to 20,000 megawatts apiece. More Photos >

By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: July 13, 2009
BEIJING â€" When the United States’ top energy and commerce officials arrive in China on Tuesday, they will land in the middle of a building storm over China’s protectionist tactics to become the world’s leader in renewable energy.


The Daliang Wind Station located outside of Anxi in Gansu Province. China is now building six wind farms with a capacity of 10,000 to 20,000 megawatts apiece.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
Energy Secretary Steven Chu will discuss global warming with Chinese officials. More Photos »


A blog about energy, the environment and the bottom line.

Calling renewable energy a strategic industry, China is trying hard to make sure that its companies dominate globally. Just as Japan and South Korea made it hard for Detroit automakers to compete in those countries â€" giving their own automakers time to amass economies of scale in sheltered domestic markets â€" China is shielding its clean energy sector while it grows to a point where it can take on the world.

Steven Chu, the American energy secretary, and Gary Locke, the commerce secretary, are coming here to discuss clean energy and global warming with Chinese leaders, and to see if progress can be made toward getting China to agree to specific targets for reductions in greenhouse gases. Agreement proved elusive during the Group of 8 summit meeting last week in Italy.

But Mr. Chu and Mr. Locke arrive as Western companies, especially Europeans, are complaining increasingly about Beijing’s green protectionism.

China has built the world’s largest solar panel manufacturing industry by exporting over 95 percent of its output to the United States and Europe. But when China authorized its first solar power plant this spring, it required that at least 80 percent of the equipment be made in China.

When the Chinese government took bids this spring for 25 large contracts to supply wind turbines, every contract was won by one of seven domestic companies. All six multinationals that submitted bids were disqualified on various technical grounds, like not providing sufficiently detailed data.

This spring, the Chinese government banned virtually any installation of wind turbines with a capacity of less than 1,000 kilowatts â€" excluding 850-kilowatt designs, a popular size for European manufacturers.

Lu Hong, the program officer for renewable energy in the Beijing office of the Energy Foundation, a nonprofit group seeking to support sustainable energy, said that China was willing to invest heavily in renewable energy industries, even though wind and solar energy costs are higher than for coal, precisely because it helps the Chinese economy.

“The Chinese government won’t consider such a big solar industry without considering the building up of the domestic industry,” she said, adding that China’s policies will also help address global warming.

Zhou Heliang, the president of the China Electrotechnical Society, a government entity that plays a broad role in national and provincial technology policy, predicted at the Wind Power Asia conference here on Friday that Chinese-owned companies would increase their share of the Chinese market by an additional 10 or 20 percentage points this year.

That would give them almost three-quarters of the domestic market, compared with a quarter for European and American companies â€" the reverse of the ratio four years ago.

This year, China passed the United States as the world’s largest market for wind energy. It is now building six wind farms with a capacity of 10,000 to 20,000 megawatts apiece, using extensive low-interest loans from state-owned banks.

By comparison, T. Boone Pickens delayed his plans to build a 4,000-megawatt wind farm in Texas, once promoted as the world’s largest.

Some foreign companies, particularly European businesses, are starting to express misgivings about China’s promotion of the local manufacturers.

European wind turbine makers have stopped even bidding for some Chinese contracts after concluding that their bids would not be seriously considered, said Jörg Wuttke, the president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

European turbine manufacturers are especially disappointed because they built factories in China in order to comply with the country’s requirement that turbines contain 70 percent local content, Mr. Wuttke said. Yet all the multinational manufacturers were disqualified on technical grounds within three days of bidding for wind farm contracts this spring, even as Chinese companies that had never built a turbine were approved, he said.

European solar power companies are also unhappy. “This is not a level playing field,” said Boris Klebensberger, the chief operating officer of SolarWorld AG, which is based in Bonn.

Mr. Wuttke said he was encouraged that Premier Wen Jiabao of China told Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in a telephone call on June 25 that China would not discriminate against foreign enterprises, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

But no new Chinese renewable energy regulations have been issued since then on local content requirements or other rules.

American companies play a smaller role in the global renewable energy industry, but some of them are also growing exasperated with the Chinese market. “That has been a tough market for non-Chinese manufacturers,” said Victor Abate, General Electric’s vice president for wind energy.

Kevin Griffis, a Commerce Department spokesman, said that the agency had not heard from American companies about difficulties in the Chinese market for renewable energy.

“Generally speaking,” Mr. Griffis said, “we support a business environment that is open, transparent, and fair so that all companies are able to compete based on product performance, not country of origin.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/business/energy-environment/14energy.html

On the other source for hamburgers (kangaroos produce a fraction of the amount of methane compared to cows), I thank you for providing that valuable info. Needless to say I'm a veggie burger fan.

[Ocklawaha]

^Good point BT.  Now we need the Chinese to have a hippy boomer generation.  Despite however successful we may be at reducing our carbon footprint, China will make that irrelevant by the rate of their industrial expansion.  Until they get on board, most of what we do won't matter.  I'm not excusing us from doing our part, just making a point.

On a related note (you might want to look into this, Faye), we could drastically reduce atmospheric pollution by switching to hamburgers made from kangaroos.  They produce a fraction of the amount of methane compared to cows.  They also go great with snapper.

Zhou Heliang, the president of the China Electrotechnical Society, a government entity that plays a broad role in national and provincial technology policy, predicted at the Wind Power Asia conference here on Friday that Chinese-owned companies would increase their share of the Chinese market by an additional 10 or 20 percentage points this year.

That would give them almost three-quarters of the domestic market, compared with a quarter for European and American companies â€" the reverse of the ratio four years ago.

This year, China passed the United States as the world’s largest market for wind energy. It is now building six wind farms with a capacity of 10,000 to 20,000 megawatts apiece, using extensive low-interest loans from state-owned banks.

By comparison, T. Boone Pickens delayed his plans to build a 4,000-megawatt wind farm in Texas, once promoted as the world’s largest.

Some foreign companies, particularly European businesses, are starting to express misgivings about China’s promotion of the local manufacturers.

European wind turbine makers have stopped even bidding for some Chinese contracts after concluding that their bids would not be seriously considered, said Jörg Wuttke, the president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

European turbine manufacturers are especially disappointed because they built factories in China in order to comply with the country’s requirement that turbines contain 70 percent local content, Mr. Wuttke said. Yet all the multinational manufacturers were disqualified on technical grounds within three days of bidding for wind farm contracts this spring, even as Chinese companies that had never built a turbine were approved, he said.

European solar power companies are also unhappy. “This is not a level playing field,” said Boris Klebensberger, the chief operating officer of SolarWorld AG, which is based in Bonn.

This is just great, we're going to SAVE the SNAPPERS and KILL the BIRDS! Are we going to get real emotional over Snappers? What do we do when we put them ahead of birds? Do Snappers eat birds, or do birds eat Snappers? Which group should we kill off first?

Yeah sure, you mean the emotional talking points? Maybe we should listen to the emotional talking points of our children and grandchildren who want to see the birds survive.........

Wind turbines taking toll on birds of prey
By John Ritter, USA TODAY
ALTAMONT PASS, Calif. â€" The big turbines that stretch for miles along these rolling, grassy hills have churned out clean, renewable electricity for two decades in one of the nation's first big wind-power projects.

But for just as long, massive fiberglass blades on the more than 4,000 windmills have been chopping up tens of thousands of birds that fly into them, including golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, burrowing owls and other raptors.

After years of study but little progress reducing bird kills, environmentalists have sued to force turbine owners to take tough corrective measures. The companies, at risk of federal prosecution, say they see the need to protect birds. "Once we finally realized that this issue was really serious, that we had to solve it to move forward, we got religion," says George Hardie, president of G3 Energy.

The size of the annual body count â€" conservatively put at 4,700 birds â€" is unique to this sprawling, 50-square-mile site in the Diablo Mountains between San Francisco and the agricultural Central Valley because it spans an international migratory bird route regulated by the federal government. The low mountains are home to the world's highest density of nesting golden eagles.

Scientists don't know whether the kills reduce overall bird populations but worry that turbines, added to other factors, could tip a species into decline. "They didn't realize it at the time, but it was just a really bad place to build a wind farm," says Grainger Hunt, an ecologist with the Peregrine Fund who has studied eagles at Altamont.

Apocalyptic!

OCKLAWAHA

[tashi]

In regards to the Red Snapper, I find it very sad that people are making fun of the situation. Look at our river and the algae bloom, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, the depletion of coastal wetlands, the sickly coral reefs (which are breeding grounds), and the health of our waterways. The amount of consumption is staggering and all animals need a healthy environment to survive an breed.

"Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money". Cree Indian Proverb

[tashi]

^Good point BT.  Now we need the Chinese to have a hippy boomer generation.  Despite however successful we may be at reducing our carbon footprint, China will make that irrelevant by the rate of their industrial expansion.  Until they get on board, most of what we do won't matter.  I'm not excusing us from doing our part, just making a point.

On a related note (you might want to look into this, Faye), we could drastically reduce atmospheric pollution by switching to hamburgers made from kangaroos.  They produce a fraction of the amount of methane compared to cows.  They also go great with snapper.

Zhou Heliang, the president of the China Electrotechnical Society, a government entity that plays a broad role in national and provincial technology policy, predicted at the Wind Power Asia conference here on Friday that Chinese-owned companies would increase their share of the Chinese market by an additional 10 or 20 percentage points this year.

That would give them almost three-quarters of the domestic market, compared with a quarter for European and American companies â€" the reverse of the ratio four years ago.

This year, China passed the United States as the world’s largest market for wind energy. It is now building six wind farms with a capacity of 10,000 to 20,000 megawatts apiece, using extensive low-interest loans from state-owned banks.

By comparison, T. Boone Pickens delayed his plans to build a 4,000-megawatt wind farm in Texas, once promoted as the world’s largest.

Some foreign companies, particularly European businesses, are starting to express misgivings about China’s promotion of the local manufacturers.

European wind turbine makers have stopped even bidding for some Chinese contracts after concluding that their bids would not be seriously considered, said Jörg Wuttke, the president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

European turbine manufacturers are especially disappointed because they built factories in China in order to comply with the country’s requirement that turbines contain 70 percent local content, Mr. Wuttke said. Yet all the multinational manufacturers were disqualified on technical grounds within three days of bidding for wind farm contracts this spring, even as Chinese companies that had never built a turbine were approved, he said.

European solar power companies are also unhappy. “This is not a level playing field,” said Boris Klebensberger, the chief operating officer of SolarWorld AG, which is based in Bonn.

This is just great, we're going to SAVE the SNAPPERS and KILL the BIRDS! Are we going to get real emotional over Snappers? What do we do when we put them ahead of birds? Do Snappers eat birds, or do birds eat Snappers? Which group should we kill off first?

Yeah sure, you mean the emotional talking points? Maybe we should listen to the emotional talking points of our children and grandchildren who want to see the birds survive.........

Wind turbines taking toll on birds of prey
By John Ritter, USA TODAY
ALTAMONT PASS, Calif. â€" The big turbines that stretch for miles along these rolling, grassy hills have churned out clean, renewable electricity for two decades in one of the nation's first big wind-power projects.

But for just as long, massive fiberglass blades on the more than 4,000 windmills have been chopping up tens of thousands of birds that fly into them, including golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, burrowing owls and other raptors.

After years of study but little progress reducing bird kills, environmentalists have sued to force turbine owners to take tough corrective measures. The companies, at risk of federal prosecution, say they see the need to protect birds. "Once we finally realized that this issue was really serious, that we had to solve it to move forward, we got religion," says George Hardie, president of G3 Energy.

The size of the annual body count â€" conservatively put at 4,700 birds â€" is unique to this sprawling, 50-square-mile site in the Diablo Mountains between San Francisco and the agricultural Central Valley because it spans an international migratory bird route regulated by the federal government. The low mountains are home to the world's highest density of nesting golden eagles.

Scientists don't know whether the kills reduce overall bird populations but worry that turbines, added to other factors, could tip a species into decline. "They didn't realize it at the time, but it was just a really bad place to build a wind farm," says Grainger Hunt, an ecologist with the Peregrine Fund who has studied eagles at Altamont.

Apocalyptic!

OCKLAWAHA

Apparently the data in regards to the wind turbines killing birds is not current. They have been redesigned and don't kill quite as many birds (at least not as many as electrical lines).

Here are a couple of links to look at:

http://www.awea.org/faq/sagrillo/swbirds.html
Good footnotes on this.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/04/common_misconce.php

[FayeforCure]

Apparently the data in regards to the wind turbines killing birds is not current. They have been redesigned and don't kill quite as many birds (at least not as many as electrical lines).

Here are a couple of links to look at:

http://www.awea.org/faq/sagrillo/swbirds.html
Good footnotes on this.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/04/common_misconce.php

Thank you tashi. One of the favorite tactics of non-environmentalists is to mock real scientific evidence of declining populations, followed by putting out distracting bogus claims about other "dangers,"........in the blogosphere this is considered "concern trolling."  Another frequent distraction used is to mock the the messenger.

Too bad Ock and others are so adept at distracting from the substance of the issue.

[BridgeTroll]

Faye... as always... you seem to think there is only one side to an issue.  Mica and others do not hate fish or red snapper.  I am an environmentalist and I would venture to say Ock is also very pro environment and conservation.  We also like to eat snapper and understand that there are peoples jobs and livelihoods at stake.  Environmentalists in your camp would ban fishing for snapper and propose that we all consume tofu and wheat germ for our eating pleasure.  Mica is most likely searching for some middle ground between "environmentalist" and fishermen and fish eating public.  He is not against conservation... just your version of conservation.

[Overstreet]

I'm not sure where the connection between red snapper and wind turbines is. But the problem with restrictions on red snapper fishing is that the one government study conflicts with practical knowledge and scientific studies.   The fishermen know that the last few years have been great snapper fishing. They know that in the gulf you are limited to two per fisherman per day. But when you sit there and fish and every fish coming up is a red snapper they are abundant and not threatened.  The interesting thing is that in the Gulf they limit daily catch to 2 per fisherman.  But in the Atlantic they want to cut it off all together for most of the year without ever reducing bag limits.  Something is wrong with that.
Fishing biologists have come out questioning the protocols of the red snapper study and the results.
Frankly if they want to help the red snapper population they would be placing more artificial reefs. The snapper and grouper populations in areas where artificial reefs are installed have grown.  This might be the wind turbine connection. They are in affect artificial habitat. They could do the same thing with oil rigs, reef pyramids and old ships.  Most of the shelf is desert. Added structure creates habitat for the fish.
I find it interesting that we have wind turbine fields in California and Texas and they still debate whether they kill birds. What would be the result if they just went out and counted the dead birds on the ground?
Off shore oil rigs don’t leak like they used to. Hurricanes surged through the gulf in 2004 and destroyed several rigs. There were no spills. The only spill to make the news was a barge that leaked in port. That can happen now. Fuel barges regularly transit the river to the power plants up river.  I’d like to see some oil rigs five miles from the beach.  (Within my boats comfort zone)

[FayeforCure]

Mica is most likely searching for some middle ground between "environmentalist" and fishermen and fish eating public.  He is not against conservation... just your version of conservation.

Hmmm, yeah, Mica's actually gotten a 0 rating out of 100 from the League of Conservation Voters for several years in a row. Imagine that!

[BridgeTroll]

Apparently he just hates red snappers...

http://www.house.gov/mica/envtop10.shtml

1. Congressman Mica has been the region’s, Florida’s, and one of our nation’s strongest advocates for mass transit and eco-friendly transportation systems as a transportation alternative. He has championed cost effective, environmentally positive new transit technology and projects both in Florida and across the United States. "No other project in Florida in the long term will benefit our state's environment more than the Central Florida Commuter Rail System". (More)

2. State and National leader on beach restoration projects. Rep. Mica has been recently been working with the U.S Army Corp of Engineers and State and Local Authorities in Volusia, Flagler, and St. Johns Counties. (Flagler) (Volusia)
(St. Johns) (Press) (Photos)

3. One of the key authors for the Florida Everglades restoration project. Ensuring that adequate engineering, cost effective restoration and future beach preservation are undertaken. Led recent efforts in Congress to authorize the first funds for actual restoration work in the historic Water Resources and Development Act (WRDA) of 2007 (including successfully overriding a Presidential Veto, the 107th in the history of Congress). (Press)

4. Passed in the WRDA bill a record $24 billion authorization for vital water project investments including ecosystem restoration and critical dam and levee protection measures. Congress had not passed any WRDA legislation since 2000. Rep. Mica instituted a transparent and open project review, setting a new standard for all committees in Congress. (Press)

5. Championed a record number of Rails to Trails projects in Florida and the nation. The 7th Congressional District completed miles of rails to trails projects which exceeds any other district in Florida and most in the Nation. Congressman Mica was recognized by the Florida Rails to Trails Association with their State award. (More) (Links) (Awards)

6. A major sponsor of and successfully secured $ 1.9 million in funding for the construction of the Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve Center in South Ponte Vedra Beach. This is one of only several dozen marine estuary educational and science centers in the United States. (More)

7. Over the past decade and a half, working with the Department of the Interior, St. Johns River Water Management District, and local governments, Rep. Mica helped acquire and preserve thousands of acres of endangered lands adjacent to the St. Johns River. (More)

8. Restoration of Rose Bay in Volusia County is nearly complete because of Congressman Mica’s tireless efforts to bring Federal, State, and local resources and funding to repair the damage to one of Florida’s most beautiful estuaries. (More)

9. Bringing together the Florida Department of Transportation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Johns Water Management, and State, County and local governments, Rep. Mica is working to restore DeBary Bayou, a natural waterway adjacent to the St. Johns River that has become polluted, filled with silt and choked with growth. (More)

10. Assisted with the restoration of Lake Mary near Lake Helen whose natural spring flow was restored. (More)

[BridgeTroll]

Shocking...

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6907

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) calls itself "the political voice of the national environmental movement and the only organization devoted full-time to shaping a pro-environment Congress and White House." Founded in 1969 by veteran environmentalist David Brower, this organization works to defeat what it calls "anti-environment" candidates running for political office and elect those candidates it believes are contributing to the welfare of the environment. Though LCV claims to be nonpartisan, its support is reserved almost exclusively for left-of-center Democrats.

LCV promotes its agenda through the publication and distribution of its National Environmental Scorecard and its Presidential Report Card. According to LCV, the Scorecard "provides ob­jective, factual information" about the environmental voting records of all Members of Congress. On the LCV Scorecard, the mean scores for Republicans in both the House of Representatives and the Senate are under 15 percent (in a 100 percent rating scale). By contrast, Democrats in the House and Senate score 70 percent and 82 percent, respectively.

In January 2004, LCV endorsed Democratic Senator John Kerry for U.S. President. Mr. Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, is Chair of the Howard Heinz Endowment and a Board Member of both the Vira I. Heinz Endowment and the Heinz Family Foundation. These foundations have funded LCV. In addition, at least four members of the LCV Board of Directors lead other environmental groups that received more than $1 million from the Heinz philanthropies between 2001 and 2003.

LCV's 2003 Presidential Report Card gave George W. Bush the first "F" grade ever handed out by the group. "Bush's dismal Report Card," stated LCV president Deb Callahan, "is dominated by a disturbing trend: time after time, Bush favors corporate interests over the public's interest in a clean, safe, and healthy environment. Under the Bush administration, corporate polluters have been allowed to write the laws." 

LCV Chairman Bill Roberts also serves as Executive Director of the Beldon Fund, which gave LCV $2.28 million in grants between 2001 and 2003. Since 9/11, Roberts has sought to direct America's attention away from the war on terror, and toward what he perceives as the even more important battle to save the environment. "One thing the [9/11] attack did not do," Roberts said, "was alter the persistent importance of environmental issues to people and the planet. … Global warming, toxic pollution, lost biodiversity, and a long list of other environmental threats did not go away on September 11."

The California chapter of LCV endorsed a May 1, 2003 document titled "10 Reasons Environmentalists Oppose an Attack on Iraq," which was published by Environmentalists Against War.

LCV has received funding from the Bauman Family Foundation; the Beldon Fund; the Blue Moon Fund; the Bullitt Foundation; the Compton Foundation; the Educational Foundation of America; the Nathan Cummings Foundation; the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; the Joyce Foundation; the J.M. Kaplan Fund; the David and Lucile Packard Foundation; the Scherman Foundation; the Surdna Foundation; the Turner Foundation; the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation; the New-Land Foundation; and numerous others.

The LCV Board of Directors includes officials of the Beldon Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense, Friends of the Earth (Brent Blackwelder), the Wilderness Society, and the Center for American Progress (John D. Podesta).

[Sigma]

Yes, shocking.  Thanks for looking further BT.

[FayeforCure]

Imagine that,.........Mica singing his own praises on the environment. Too bad he didn't even manage to score a 50% with the League of Conservation voters, which would have entitled him to a "middle-ground" designation.

As for the possibility of Republicans to score higher than the most dismal 0% that Mica scored with the LCV,.......let's see if that's even possible:

10/15/08


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joshua McNeil, (202) 785-8683 or joshua_mcneil@lcv.org




League of Conservation Voters Endorses Senator Susan Collins

Only Republican Senator with a Perfect Environmental Voting Record in 2007, Collins Kept Commitment to Conservation and Clean Energy in 2008

WASHINGTON, DC - The League of Conservation Voters (LCV), which works to turn environmental values into national priorities, today announced the endorsement of Senator Susan Collins for re-election in Maine.

“Senator Collins is a leader and a champion for the environment, reaching across party lines to introduce and support bipartisan pieces of legislation that hold oil companies accountable for their high profits, invest in clean energy alternatives, and promote fuel efficiency for vehicles,” LCV Senior Vice President Tony Massaro said. “Senator Collins brings Maine’s strong spirit of conservation to Washington, and she continues to be one of the nation’s most powerful voices for clean, renewable energy.”

“I am honored to receive the endorsement of the League of Conservation Voters,” said Senator Susan Collins, “Maine’s future depends on clean air, clean water, and clean energy, and I will continue to work with LCV and forward thinking leaders from both parties to ensure a cleaner future for us all.”

In 2007, Collins received a perfect 100% score on LCV’s 2007 National Environmental Scorecard,* the only Republican Senator to do so.  In 2008, she consistently supported conservation and clean energy (The 2008 Scorecard will be released on October 17).   In the upcoming Congress, she proposes to do more to increase funding to programs that help consumers conserve energy and lower heating and utility costs. She will support extending existing tax credits for alternative fuel and hybrid vehicles, repeal billions of dollars in excessive tax breaks for major oil companies and redirect the money to support renewable energy and efficiency initiatives.

“Putting her values ahead of the powerful influence of the oil industry, Susan Collins has taken a stand against high gas prices and fought to break America’s addiction to oil,” Massaro said. 

Susan Collins understands that the path towards energy independence lies in the development of clean, renewable energy resources such as solar, wind and tidal. She intends to extend tax incentives for investors and innovators in these fields and believes that in order to take full advantage of these new technologies, the Senate must pass a National Renewable Energy Standard.  Implementing a standard that would require utilities to generate at least 20% of their electricity from environmentally safe sources by 2020 will help create millions of new, American jobs and reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil.

"The only way to find solution to the most pressing environmental and energy challenges facing our nation is to come together across party and regional lines.  I have a proven track record of doing just that.  Again, I am honored to receive the League of Conservation Voters endorsement," said Senator Collins.

* The non-partisan LCV National Environmental Scorecard is a nationally accepted yardstick used to rate Members of Congress on conservation and clean energy issues. Based on key conservation votes in the House and Senate, it is often used by the media to quickly describe a Member’s record.  For more information, visit www.lcv.org/scorecard.  The 2008 Scorecard will be available on October 17, 2008.

# # #

http://www.lcv.org/newsroom/press-releases/league-of-conservation-voters-endorses-senator-susan-collins.html

Pandering to local voters, and local businesses here and there is quite a different notion than the leadership needed to support what's best for our nation's environment at large. 

[Sigma]

Sorry, Faye. your credibility on this issue has been lost.  read the first article by BT.  The BOD for LCV says it all.  LCV is not an objective source.

[JMac]

Sour grapes

[BridgeTroll]

Faye... either he did those ten things for the environment or he didnt.  Lets substitute...

Pandering to local voters, and local businesses

for

Listening to local voters, and local businesses

I mean... he is one of our representatives.  I Guess one mans pandering is anothers listening...