Environmental policy experts say the GOP opposition stems from concerns that the Democratic administration is enforcing regulations more strictly than the George W. Bush administration did. The pushback against the EPA also can be seen in the ongoing fight by lawmakers over greenhouse gas emissions. In April, the GOP-controlled House passed a measure that would bar the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, a day after the Senate defeated the measure.

A group of Republican senators — led by Pat Roberts of Kansas and including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Thad Cochran of Mississippi — recently sent a letter to Sen. Deborah Stabenow, D-Mich., the chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, calling on her to bring up the Senate version of the pesticide regulation bill.

"We write to address the continued regulatory overreach by the Environmental Protection Agency that is a growing concern of farmers, ranchers, foresters and agribusinesses throughout the nation," the Republican senators wrote. "Agriculture producers, forestry interests, public health officials, states, municipalities and other impacted stakeholders have told us they are in imminent need of certainty for what may be required of them in the near future. State and local officials have made clear that this is not merely a regulatory burden but could endanger public health as we enter mosquito season."

HATTIESBURG, Miss. — With only hours before the polls were to close in the Republican Senate runoff here, Senator Thad Cochran’s campaign was still reaching out to traditional black Democrats in his effort to defeat his Tea Party-backed opponent, State Senator Chris McDaniel. But turnout in African-American precincts appeared to be low, and McDaniel supporters were optimistic.

The hard feelings generated by the race were also in evidence, with both conservative groups and the N.A.A.C.P. sending out poll watchers to look for what they considered to be fraud or intimidation. The United States Justice Department also said that it was “aware of concerns about voter intimidation and is monitoring the situation.”time mag

It looks like the Club for Growth really holds a grudge. The right-leaning free enterprise group that has been going after Republican incumbents is out with a new ad Monday targeting Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran (R) -- for votes as far back as the administration of President Jimmy Carter.

The 76-year-old Cochran, who first went to Congress in 1973, certainly has cast a lot of votes, first in the House, then in the Senate, where he has been since 1978. There's plenty for opponents to criticize, and the Club for Growth goes for the whole sweep, starting with Cochran's voting with Carter on education policy. It also touches President George H.W. Bush's "read my lips" pledge of no new taxes, and the many times Cochran has backed hiking the nation's debt ceiling, which just about any politician who served more than a year has had to do.

In fact, while the Cochran ad doesn't mention it, Club for Growth president Chris Chocola voted for budgets that hiked the nation's borrowing cap three times: from $6.4 trillion to $7.384 trillion in 2003, to $8.1 trillion in 2004, and to $8.965 trillion in 2005 and 2006. Chocola was a Republican congressman from Indiana from 2003 to 2007.

The Club For Growth ad is not the only one being dropped on Cochran, who is being challenged by state Sen. Chris McDaniel. Senate Conservatives Action, a political action committee founded by former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), also announced it was spending more than $300,000

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https://www.ecowatch.com/koch-brothers-paris-agreement-2430226599.html

Paris Exit Was 'Victory Paid and Carried Out' by Republican Party for the Koch Brothers

nolink

The 22 Republican senators who sent a letter to President Donald Trump last week urging the United States' withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement received more than $10 million dollars in campaign funds from fossil fuel interests.

The two-page letter was signed by a number of Republican heavyweights from coal/gas/oil-rich states, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and Ted Cruz of Texas.

The Guardian calculated that the 22 senators received a total of $10,694,284 from oil, gas and coal money in just five years. (See the breakdown below.

However, that sum does not even come close to the amount of undisclosed funds coming from the deep pockets of Charles and David Koch's coal, oil and gas conglomerate, Koch Industries, and other outside groups.

As the Guardian explains:

"Visible donations to Republicans from those industries exceeded donations to Democrats in the 2016 election cycle by a ratio of 15-to-1, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. And that does not include so-called dark money passed from oil interests such as Koch industries to general slush funds to re-elect Republicans such as the Senate leadership fund.

"At least $90m in untraceable money has been funneled to Republican candidates from oil, gas and coal interests in the past three election cycles, according to Federal Election Commission disclosures analyzed by the Center for Responsive Politics."

Jeffrey Sachs, professor of economics and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, shared recently his views on Trump's climate walkout.In an interview with Bloomberg Surveillance, Sachs referenced the senators' letter and specifically cast blame on the billionaire oil barons for pulling the strings of Republican party leaders such as McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, who both supported exiting the Paris accord.

"This is the victory paid and carried out for 20 years by two people, David and Charles Koch," Sachs said. "They have bought and purchased the top of the Republican party. Trump is a tool in this."

Notably, most of the Republican signatories of the letter do not support the belief that human activity contributes to climate change.

During an appearance on MSNBC, Democratic Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts explained why he thinks his Republican colleagues do not believe in the science of climate change.

"This Conservative party in the United States is funded by the Koch brothers [and] it's funded by the coal industry," Markey said. "[They] insist that Scott Pruitt—the Attorney General of Oklahoma that actually sued the EPA 19 times on clean air, clean water, soot, mercury issues—becomes the head of the EPA in our country."

The 22 Republican signatories' funding from Big Oil, Gas and Coal in the past three election cycles (2012, 2014 and 2016):

James Inhofe, Oklahoma

Oil & gas: $465,950 + Coal: $63,600 = $529,550

John Barrasso, Wyoming

Oil & gas: $458,466 + Coal: $127,356 = $585,822

Mitch McConnell, Kentucky

Oil & gas: $1,180,384 + Coal: $361,700 = $1,542,084

John Cornyn, Texas

Oil & gas: $1,101,456 + Coal: $33,050 = $1,134,506

Roy Blunt, Missouri

Oil & gas: $353,864 + Coal: $96,000 = $449,864

Roger Wicker, Mississippi

Oil & gas: $198,816 + Coal: $25,376 = $224,192

Michael Enzi, Wyoming

Oil & gas: $211,083 + Coal: $63,300 = $274,383

Mike Crapo, Idaho

Oil & gas: $110,250 + Coal: $26,756 = $137,006

Jim Risch, Idaho

Oil & gas: $123,850 + Coal: $25,680 = $149,530

Thad Cochran, Mississippi

Oil & gas: $276,905 + Coal: $15,000 = $291,905

Mike Rounds, South Dakota

Oil & gas: $201,900 + Coal: none = $201,900

Rand Paul, Kentucky

Oil & gas: $170,215 + Coal: $82,571 = $252,786

John Boozman, Arkansas

Oil & gas: $147,930 + Coal: $2,000 = $149,930

Richard Shelby, Alabama

Oil & gas: $60,150 + $2,500 = $62,650

Luther Strange, Alabama (Appointed in 2017, running in 2017 special election)

Total: NA

Orrin Hatch, Utah

Oil & gas: $446,250 + Coal: $25,000 = $471,250

Mike Lee, Utah

Oil & gas: $231,520 + Coal: $21,895 = $253,41

Ted Cruz, Texas

Oil & gas: $2,465,910 + Coal: $103,900 = $2,569,810

David Perdue, Georgia

Oil & gas: $184,250 + Coal: $0 = $184,250

Thom Tillis, North Carolina

Oil & gas: $263,400 + Coal: $0 = $263,400

Tim Scott, South Carolina

Oil & gas: $490,076 + Coal: $58,200 = $548,276

Pat Roberts, Kansas

Oil & gas: $388,950 + Coal: $28,825 = $417,775

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, "Both senators from eight states of the 'Toxic 20' states -- Kentucky, Indiana, Georgia, Texas, Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi -- supported a resolution by Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., to repeal the health-protective mercury and air toxics standard."

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http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Thad_Cochran

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Committee assignments

Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

Committee on Appropriations (Vice Chairman)

Committee on Rules and Administration

[edit] Caucus memberships

House/Senate International Education Study Group (Co-Chair)
International Conservation Caucus
Republican Task Force to Study the Energy Crisis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thad_Cochran

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Richard Burr Introduces Bill To Abolish The EPA

Posted by Brad Johnson on Friday, May 06, 2011

Senate Republicans have introduced legislation to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency. The bill, introduced by Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), would merge the EPA, which enforces environmental laws, with the Department of Energy, which manages nuclear energy and energy research, into one department.

In January, Newt Gingrich proposed abolishing the EPA, and several House Republicans have supported that goal. Burr’s statement announcing his bill to eliminate the EPA argues that “duplicative functions” can be eliminated:

U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) introduced a bill that would consolidate the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency into a single, new agency called the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE). The bill would provide cost savings by combining duplicative functions while improving the administration of energy and environmental policies by ensuring a coordinated approach.

Burr’s bill has fifteen co-sponsors, all of them deniers of the threat of global warming pollution, a top EPA priority: Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), John Thune (R-S.D.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Dan Coats (R-Ind.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), David Vitter (R-La.), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), Mike Lee (R-Utah).

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Still, the similarities between the twoare as great as the differences. Both candidates rely on support from outside organizations, and there's a lot of money involved that has nothing to do with Mississippi.

Cochran received only a little over $90,000 in contributions from individuals, almost all of it in checks of more than $200. A paltry $14,000 of that came from people with Mississippi addresses.

Also, more than a third of Cochran's contributions from individuals -- $38,300 -- came from registered lobbyists listing addresses in Washington, D.C. or northern Virginia. BesidesHaley Barbour -- a very public Cochran ally -- there are representatives from big firms likeCassidy & Associates, Cornerstone Government Affairs and the Podesta Group. Cochran's FEC reports almost read like a who's who of K Street.

The pattern is similar with his PAC donors. In total, Cochran received $192,328 from PACs based in Washington, D.C, $91,425 from PACs in Virginia and just $35,000 from PACs based in Mississippi. PACs based in Georgia gave almost as much ($33,000) as those from his home state, and so did groups in Texas ($31,600).

It's hard to do the same analysis for challenger McDaniel because not all of his year end reports, filed on Dec. 31, have been processed by the FEC (a campaign official notes that the filing includes duplicate contributions and an amended report will follow). But he did get far more from individuals -- $445,000 -- than did Cochran, and more of them have addresses in the Magnolia State. Club for Growth disclosures, for instance, show that in October and November, the group sent at least $34,639 from Mississippi contributors to McDaniel.

But McDaniel is not purely running on homegrown support. A look at outside spending groups who have waded into the battle shows that Senate Conservatives Action -- the super PAC arm of the Senate Conservatives Fund -- has spent $268,000 on independent expenditures supporting McDaniel. According to the super PAC's filings with the FEC, in 2013, it received $1.5 million in large donations and not a dime of it came from donors in Mississippi.

Similarly, Club for Growth Action, the super PAC arm of the same group already supporting McDaniel with earmarked donations from small donors, has spent $244,000 on ads supporting McDaniel. According to FEC records, that super PAC raised $2.5 million from individuals giving more than $200, but only $300 of that came from a a donor in Mississippi.

The only super PAC that has spent money against McDaniel, Mississippi Conservatives, has links to Barbour but has not yet filed a report disclosing its donors.

Follow Russ on Twitter: @russchoma

Cochran, Thad Sen 9%

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http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Thad_Cochran

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Committee assignments

[edit] Caucus memberships

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thad_Cochran

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Richard Burr Introduces Bill To Abolish The EPA

Attachments