Big Oil Favorite Walberg Drills for Campaign Cash with Oilman Cheney

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following Dick Cheney’s appearance in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District to raise money for Representative Tim Walberg’s re-election campaign, LCV President Gene Karpinski issued a statement regarding the first-term congressman’s poor record on clean energy legislation.

“In his first year in Congress, Rep. Walberg sided with polluters, developers and the oil industry, so it’s no surprise that he called on the patron of Big Oil -- Vice President Dick Cheney -- to appear at a fund-raising event.”

Cheney was the architect of the taxpayer giveaways to Big Oil. In 2005, he and the energy industry’s lobbyists huddled behind closed doors and wrote an energy bill which gave billions in tax breaks to the oil companies while they enjoyed record corporate profits. Last year, Congressman Walberg voted to keep the corporate gravy train rolling — even as the price of a barrel of crude oil topped an all-time high of $100. No wonder Walberg called on Dick Cheney and his well-heeled friends to return the favor by making a stop in Southern Michigan to raise money.

At a time when people are hurting from an economic slow-down caused in part because American consumers are paying an arm and a leg for dirty fossil fuels, we should be investing in the clean, renewable energy of the future and the green jobs that will be created with that investment. But Walberg has turned away from his constituents and chosen to become a darling of the Bush-Cheney Administration by consistently voting against the environment and contrary to the health and safety of the people of Michigan.

A look at LCV’s 2007 National Environmental Scorecard shows Rep. Walberg consistently adopts the failed energy strategy of the Bush-Cheney Administration. He voted against fuel efficiency standards, against a Renewable Electricity Standard, against mandatory limits on global warming pollution and in favor of liquid coal and oil subsidies last year.

Walberg’s 2007 score: a pathetic 5%.

“We must develop a long-term energy policy that moves away from failed Bush Administration policies and meets the needs of Michigan while protecting our planet from the devastating effects of global warming," Karpinski said. “Rep. Walberg is clearly not up for the challenge, especially since he’s proud to have Vice President Cheney at his side during the 2008 re-election campaign.”