If Dingy Reid had scheduled a vote to build wind turbines off the coast of New England…..
Via Seattle PI
Like he did 82 times before, Sheldon Whitehouse stood on the Senate floor and preached the dangers of climate change.
In his last speech before Congress adjourned, the senator warned that 2014 is on track to be the hottest year on record.
It was a familiar sight: Whitehouse has given a speech about climate change each of the last 83 weeks Congress has been in session.
He never has to give the same speech twice, he says — there are plenty of new angles to take on such a big problem.
The Rhode Island Democrat’s ever-changing, ever-present floor speeches — warnings over rising sea levels, warmer oceans, eroding coastlines and more — make him the Senate’s loudest, most persistent voice on the dangers of climate change.[…]
As the Senate switches to a Republican majority, however, Whitehouse faces significant hurdles in getting meaningful climate change legislation passed.
The oil and gas industry spent $53 million on the 2014 elections and nearly $75 million in 2012, with close to 90 percent of the contributions going to Republicans, according to the political money-tracking website OpenSecrets.org.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said his top priority will be to rein in the Environmental Protection Agency, which is trying to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. He has said their “overreaching efforts” are strangling the economy. New environmental regulations have hampered U.S. job growth and caused a depression in eastern Kentucky coalfields, according to McConnell.