View the Facebook ad here.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) today launched a digital ad campaign criticizing Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) for his vote against 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. The ads, on Facebook, Twitter, and other digital platforms, target Sen. Portman’s constituents and will run for about one week. This is part of a larger $370,000 multimedia ad campaign holding senators accountable or applauding them for their votes on Sen. Schatz’s amendment.

“It is an outrage that Sen. Portman is putting polluter profits ahead of Ohioans 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century and with key incentives for wind and solar being phased out over the next several years, the time to stop these outdated taxpayer giveaways is now.”

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). Sen. Portman voted NAY.

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