Some members of Congress have reported that the Republican party continues to undermine environmental protection. The Congress members stated that the GOP is trying to allow for more toxic pollution, increased waste, and fast consumption of resources.

The Energy and Commerce Committee in Congress is where a large part of all these decisions occur. The House Republicans argue that having environmental controls will affect the nation’s economy and jobs, even though the evidence of this is absent.

While we are on the threshold of the fiscal year 2012, there are a few developments to be aware of. The U.S. EPA and the Interior Department are both subjects of a bill that will create deep cuts. The bill (H.R. 2584) involves getting rid numerous restrictions on environmental regulation. Measures to protect human and environmental health with the Clean Air Act and others are in danger of being phased out.

The Republican majority-run House has voted 20 times against regulating emissions linked to climate change. It includes 10 votes taken about House Bill 910 that would permanently strip the EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The bill passed the House in April but has since stalled in the Senate, which means that it is in danger of the mercy of the Republican leaders who were involved with other similar measures.

The house has also voted against measure to protect the public from the effects of air and water pollution as well as mountain top removal for at least 28 times. The evidence of public health being affected by these things is overwhelming, but the Tea Party in the House continues to push recklessly for a compromised environment and future; effectively trying to close the garage door on the conversation.

The two Democrats who reported the EPA and Interior Department cuts had other matters discussed that followed the same pattern. 27 votes were taken “to undermine protection for public lands and coastal areas,” including passage in May of a bill (H.R. 1231) to allow leasing on the East and West coasts of the United States.

This allows for the public beaches and other treasured areas on the coasts to be owned by anyone to do as they please. This means that when one entity chooses to pollute over property that they bought, then it can leak into public areas such as beaches and the owners would not be held accountable. The horrors of the BP oil spill in 2010 are still fresh in our minds, and this bill would allow for similar environmental issues that may be even closer to the coastal areas where people live.

The American public has no benefit from the Tea Party. The Tea Party chooses to pick and choose what they want to believe in about how major corporations will affect everyone else even though this has been shown to be detrimental in the long term. If the American public wants to do something for the future of the nation, the citizens of the USA need to be informed better and the GOP needs to be held accountable for their decisions.

It can make all the difference for everyone’s well-being if they understand the real facts behind the pieces of legislation instead of the rhetoric and propaganda constantly pushed by the GOP. Legislators should represent the people and the future of our nation’s environment. The environment and public health depend on the public choosing their legislators wisely.

“On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide,” Jones said in his resignation letter, issued in the wee hours Sept. 6. “I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for our future.”

The attacks, reminiscent of the far right’s “tea party” efforts to savage late-summer health-care town halls, centered on allegations about actions before Jones accepted the administration post last March. Among the accusations were characterizing Republicans with an expletive (for which Jones has since apologized), signing a petition to investigate whether the Bush administration allowed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks (Jones has repeatedly said the petition didn’t reflect his views) and early-90s involvement in a small Marxist-oriented group.

But critics of the far-right drive saw a broader agenda.

“Van was in a very strong position to really change the way our economy works so that it works for everybody and it works for the environment, so that we can have a planet for our grandkids and great grandkids to live on,” Taj James, executive director of the Oakland-based Movement Strategy Center, told the KPFA Morning Show Sept. 8.

Emphasizing that the election of President Obama was just “the ticket to the game,” not its end, James said too many progressives have been “sitting in the bleachers watching, not out on the field playing,” allowing “a small number of very hateful people to immobilize the administration” and slow the momentum the movement built to get Obama elected. He added, “The right wing understands that if they can use the politics of fear and distraction to paralyze this administration, they can over time take this country in a really terrible direction.” Another perspective was offered by James Rucker, who heads Color of Change, a web-based organization dedicated to making sure African Americans and all under-represented people have a political voice regardless of race or class. Jones helped found the group but is no longer associated with it.

Rucker told Democracy Now! that Color of Change began to campaign against Beck when the right-wing pundit called Obama a racist and asserted the president had a deep-seated hatred for white people. Color of Change launched a campaign that Rucker said has resulted in nearly all Beck’s national advertisers abandoning the show.

Although Beck didn’t mention Color of Change by name, Rucker said, the talk show host “went from having mentioned Van Jones to Van becoming essentially public enemy number one in his mind, and he absolutely went about a smear campaign,” cherry-picking statements and long-ago affiliations.

Other organizations Jones helped found or has been affiliated with were also quick to express their anger.

“Smear campaigns designed to sabotage our movement for an equitable, green economy are attempts to distract people from what really matters, building a future that is green and just for everyone,” Jakada Imani, executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, said in a statement. “We’re outraged by the attacks Van and his family have suffered at the hands of those who have made it their mission to derail a clean, green and just future for our country.” Jones co-founded the center in 1996.

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, who heads another organization Jones helped found ― Green for All ― called on supporters not to be distracted by “the rants of those who fear our vision,” but instead to rededicate themselves to “the issues our opponents refuse to debate: ending global warming, lifting people out of poverty, restoring the economy, and bringing health to our communities.”

And the labor-environmental-business Apollo Alliance, on whose board Jones formerly served, called Beck’s attacks on it “just the opening salvo in a smear campaign that will ramp up as the right wing continues to attack President Obama and our work to bring about energy security, climate stability and long-term economic prosperity.”

Author: Marilyn Bechtel, People’s Weekly World Newspaper