On Thursday, the House Appropriations Subcommittee for the Interior and Environment approved a slash-and-burn budget for land and environmental agencies. The FY 2012 budget bill includes several riders to prevent the federal government from protecting Americans from global warming pollution. The agencies whose budgets were cut, including the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, and U.S. Forest Service, monitor and respond to flooding, drought, and wildfires.

With hundreds of billions of tons of fossil-fuel greenhouse pollution in the atmosphere, climate disasters are on the rise. The Republican members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for the Interior and Environment who voted to block interior and environmental agencies from fighting climate change come from districts that are being ravaged by these very disasters:

Subcommittee Chairman Michael K. Simpson (R-ID): Idaho, like much of the nothern United States, has been battered by extreme rains. Presidential Disaster M1987, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides

Jerry Lewis (R-CA): San Bernadino County was inundated by extreme rains. Presidential Disaster M1952, Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, and Debris and Mudflows

Ken Calvert (R-CA): Orange County hit by mudslides from extreme rains. Presidential Disaster M1952, Severe Winter Storms, Flooding, and Debris and Mudflows

Steven C. LaTourette (R-OH): On May 26, LaTourette’s district was hit by a tornado. On July 2, power outages from severe storms. On July 6, air quality advisory. With climate change, Asian carp threaten Lake Erie.

Tom Cole (R-OK): Oklahoma is the epicenter of climate disasters in the United States, with death and destruction wrought by blizzards, tornadoes, and extreme drought. Presidential Disaster M1985, Severe Winter Storm and Snowstorm. Presidential Disaster M1989, Severe Storms, Tornadoes, Straight-line Winds, and Flooding, Presidential Emergency EM-3316, Severe Winter Storm. Secretarial Disaster S3080, The combined effects of drought, extreme heat, and high winds.

Jeff Flake, (R-AZ): On July 6, the “dust storm of a lifetime” struck Flake’s district.

Cynthia Lummis (R-WY): Following a grasshopper infestation last year, Montana was struck by flooding rains this spring. Presidential Disaster M1996, Severe Storms and Flooding. Secretarial Disaster S3060, Weather-related grasshopper infestations.

These climate deniers willingly accept federal taxpayer money to support the victims of climate disasters, but are shirking their fiscal and moral responsibility to defend our nation from the pollution that is making these disasters more intense and more frequent. They are letting polluters profit from the suffering of innocent, hard-working Americans and their children. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) says he’s scared of the EPA’s efforts to fight greenhouse pollution. He should be considerably more scared of the consequences of polluting our weather.