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#MI06: On Clean Energy, Fred Upton Misses the Mark

Jul 16, 2018

Alyssa Roberts, 202-454-4573, aroberts@lcv.org

Pop quiz: Does leading a bill to prohibit the EPA from protecting public health by following climate science make someone a clean energy champion?

If you’re ClearPath Action Fund looking for a reason to endorse Congressman Fred Upton (R, MI-06), apparently the answer is yes.

Upton earned a pitiful 14 percent on LCV’s 2017 National Environmental Scorecard, below the average score of his fellow Republicans in the increasingly dubious Climate Solutions Caucus. And Upton’s voting record shows he’s more interested in blocking climate action than finding real solutions to the climate crisis.

As chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, Upton has rubber stamped many of the Trump administration’s extreme attacks on clean energy innovation — including slashing funding for renewables and an attempt to prohibit the government from accounting for the costs of carbon pollution.

Throughout his time in Congress, Upton has:

And Upton’s taken over a million dollars in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry — indicating that those corporate polluters are counting on him to continue his record of dismantling environmental protections and subsidizing fossil fuels.

“Fred Upton is more interested in helping out his friends in the fossil fuel industry than spurring clean energy innovation,” said Clay Schroers, LCV Victory Fund National Campaigns Director. “Upton said he’d protect the Arctic Refuge from drilling, but at the end of the day he sided with Big Oil and voted to sell it out to corporate polluters. He won’t be able to hide from his record of cutting funding for renewables and blocking numerous attempts to address the climate crisis.”

 

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Paid for by LCV Victory Fund, www.lcvvictoryfund.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.