First, sorry for the lack of posting lately, work has been all-consuming.
I've been going through some of the news from the past few weeks and came across
this interesting article from the Contra Costa Times.
The article covers the story of Jill Buck, a Republican from Pleasanton who is urging the GOP to focus on the environment as part of the "Go Green" initiative. Overall, the article is inoffensive and has some good points.
However, this line made me cringe:
Once elected, McNerney did not disappoint environmentalists.
He successfully advocated for increased investment in alternative and renewable sources of energy, supported a rollback of oil company subsidies and was appointed to serve on a House committee on energy independence and global warming.
I strongly disagree with this claim. McNerney has most certainly disappointed real environmentalists.
Take a look at the list of things that are purported to be environmental successes from McNerney and you'll see that it's all about energy.
I'm not trying to argue that energy has nothing to do with environmentalism, but it's a very small part of the greater issue of preserving and protecting the environment.
What we've seen in the last few years is the environmental movement taken over by the likes of Al Gore, people who deal in slogans and narrow issues. Ever since Al Gore arrived on the scene with his focus on global warming the environmental mission has been reduced to green energy issues.
This is a terrible mistake and it's why I don't support McNerney. McNerney has neglected the terrible environmental disaster taking place in his own backyard (and, in fact, has perpetuated it) while standing on his energy soapbox. I understand why he's doing this, as he makes his living in alternative energy projects, but that doesn't mean we, the voters, should accept the situation.
Every time a new housing development is allowed to take the place of open space or ag land we suffer an environmental disaster far greater than the burning of fossil fuels. In Contra Costa and Alameda counties we have developers who are targeting every bit of undeveloped land.
I've previously posted about McNerney's total capitulation on these types of environmental issues
here and
here.
Jerry likes to obfuscate the environment issue by getting people to focus on energy only. We must remind Congress that preservation of undeveloped and ag land is just as much a part of environmentalism. I'm not sure whether Dean Andal is any better than McNerney on this point, but I do know that I'd rather vote a guy out of office (ala Pombo) who is not part of the solution than let him continue to neglect these very important issues.
