View the Senator Rob Portman ads here and here.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) today launched a Facebook ad campaign holding Rob Portman (R-OH) accountable for voting in favor of Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-UT) amendment to S. 2012, the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015, which would essentially gut the Antiquities Act. The Antiquities Act was the law first used to protect half of our national parks and has been used by 16 presidents from both parties to protect America’s special places from the Statue of Liberty to the Grand Canyon. As part of a larger $20,000 campaign also targeting Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), the ads will target Sen. Portman’s constituents and will run for about one week.

“Senator Portman’s vote against the Antiquities Act is even more egregious because he was quick to applaud the use of this landmark conservation law when it was used recently to directly benefit his constituents by creating the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Ohio,” said Gene Karpinski, President of the League of Conservation Voters. “It is beyond disingenuous for him to attack this bedrock conservation law now and deny communities elsewhere the benefits of protecting their natural and cultural heritage. As we celebrate the National Park Service’s Centennial year, it is incomprehensible that Senator Portman supports tearing down the very law that ensured we could quickly protect our country’s special places for future generations. When he votes to undermine proven and successful conservation laws, it’s communities across the country that suffer when they are denied the economic benefits of preserving their natural and cultural heritage.”

On February 2, Senator Mike Lee offered an amendment to S. 2012, the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015, which would gut the Antiquities Act, the law first used to protect half of our national parks. The Antiquities Act has been used by 16 presidents of both parties to protect many of America’s most special places, from the Statue of Liberty to the Grand Canyon to the Pacific Remote Islands in Hawaii. The Senate rejected the Lee amendment by a bipartisan vote of 47-48 (Senate Roll Call Vote 10). Sens. Manchin and Portman both voted YEA.

###