WASHINGTON, D.C. – The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) today launched an approximately $370,000 multimedia ad campaign holding senators accountable or applauding them for their votes on Senator Brian Schatz’s (D-HI) amendment to S. 2012, the Senate Energy Policy Modernization Act, which would have phased out taxpayer subsidies for coal and some of the largest producers of oil and gas over a four-year period. Digital ads on a variety of platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, criticize Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Dean Heller (R-NV) for siding with polluters in voting against the amendment. Additional digital ads thank Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Mark Warner (D-VA) and Bob Casey (D-PA) for voting for the amendment, which are complemented by Spanish language radio ads thanking Sens. Bennet and Warner. The campaign targets their respective constituents and will run for over one week.

“It is an outrage that too many senators are putting polluter profits ahead of the American people by voting to continue taxpayer handouts to the fossil fuel industry,” said LCV President Gene Karpinski. “The reality is simple: oil, gas, and coal companies benefit from billions of dollars of handouts every year at taxpayers’ expense while fueling the climate crisis and threatening public health and the environment. Some of these dirty energy incentives have been on the books for more than a century and with key incentives for wind and solar being phased out over the next several years, the time to stop these outdated taxpayer giveaways is now. We thank our environmental champions in the Senate for working to end taxpayer giveaways to polluters and leading the way to a clean energy future.”

On February 2, Sen. Schatz offered an amendment to S. 2012, the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015, which would have phased out fossil fuel subsidies for coal and some of the largest producers of oil and gas over a four-year period. These subsidies amount to billions of dollars of taxpayer handouts for these mature, highly-polluting industries and the Schatz amendment parallels the timeframe over which Congress recently agreed to phase out critical tax incentives for the wind and solar industries. The Senate rejected the Schatz amendment by a bipartisan vote of 50-45 (Senate Roll Call Vote 14). Sens. Portman, Johnson, Toomey, and Heller voted NAY. Sens. Bennet, Casey and Warner voted YEA.

View the Sen. Rob Portman ad here.
View the Sen. Ron Johnson ad here.
View the Sen. Pat Toomey ad here.
View the Sen. Dean Heller ad here.
View the Sen. Michael Bennet ad here.
View the Sen. Bob Casey ad here.
View the Sen. Mark Warner ad here.

Listen to the Spanish Sen. Michael Bennet radio ad here.
Listen to the Spanish Sen. Mark Warner radio ad here.

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