Republicans for Environmental Protection is calling on House GOP leaders to stop spreading misinformation about the climate and energy legislation Democrats released last week.
In a pointed press release issued last week, the group challenged allegations made by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) that a plan to reduce climate-warming emissions amounts to a “light switch tax,” arguing that Boehner’s lies are a “disservice to American citizens.”
Boehner has now claimed repeatedly that Democrats’ plans to limit CO2 emissions will amount to a $3,100 tax on every household – a figure based on a deliberate misinterpretation of a study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At least 19 other Republicans have repeated that misinformation in the past week, but REP is taking them on for “making faulty calculations based on erroneous assumptions.” The group writes:
Conservatives, of all people, should not ignore basic principles of economics. Such tactics, which are designed to score political points and gain headlines, are a disservice to American citizens, who urgently need Congress to debate the climate issue constructively. Voters are counting on their elected representatives to work together across party lines to develop balanced legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower America’s dangerous dependence on oil, and help us move more quickly to a more diversified, robust energy economy.
Later in the release, REP concludes:
The recent Republican tactics to fight climate legislation show a dangerous unwillingness to learn the right lessons from the election debacles of 2006 and 2008. A refusal to face facts, acknowledge risks, and make responsible policy choices for the greater good is not conservative. It is reckless endangerment of our country and it must stop.
