Climate-Hawk Governors Veto Big Oil Agenda

Governors around the nation are fighting back against the Tea Party predations of the oil industry:

Gov. John Lynch (D-NH) vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have pulled his state out of the regional carbon-reduction program. RGGI has been under non-stop attacks funded by the Koch brothers, and in making the veto, Lynch rejected the false claims made by opponents and recognized those benefits for the state.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D-MT) on Thursday said “the state is pulling out of the unified command team overseeing the cleanup of oil from a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline that leaked an estimated 1,000 barrels of crude oil into the Yellowstone River late last Friday. Schweitzer accused ExxonMobil officials of not being transparent about the extent of the oil spill and the resulting cleanup effort.”

Gov. Bev Perdue (D-NC) signed an executive order to create the Offshore Wind Economic Development Task Force, in conjunction with her veto of Senate Bill 709, which would have pushed the development of offshore oil and gas, as well as onshore gas fracking.

The nation desperately needs climate hawks like these fighting for a clean energy future, especially as hopes for a national mobilization on greenhouse pollution needed to stave off catastrophic climate change have dimmed.