Ed has an extraordinary track record on climate. In the Senate, he’s authored strong climate bills, such as bills to ban oil exports (S. 2886, 115th Congress), an anti-Keystone XL bill (S. 753, 115th Congress), coal leasing reform bills (S. 737, 115th Congress; S. 2339, 114th Congress), Arctic National Wildlife Refuge protection (S. 2461, 116th Congress), and most recently the Green New Deal itself (Ed’s S. Res. 59 is the counterpart to her H. Res. 109).
Ed faces representative Joe Kennedy (MA-04), who has authored one bill on energy, the Fair RATES Act (H.R. 2984 in the 114th Congress, H.R. 587 in the 115th Congress) during his four terms in the House -- a bill to make technical procedural changes to the Federal Power Act (Markey introduced the companion in the Senate.) Kennedy’s House website mentions “alternative” energy as much as it mentions “renewable energy” -- a minor detail, but not expected from a climate hawk working to build an economy powered by renewables as the default.
And we’ve heard from Massachusetts climate hawks who are troubled by Rep. Kennedy telling voters that fossil fuels will always be needed -- “we simply cannot run an economy on wind and solar alone,” he says. Sorry, Rep. Kennedy -- we look forward to that clean energy economy.
This is a tough race. An early poll showed Kennedy ahead of Markey, and Kennedy outraised Markey in December, $2.4 million to $1.4 million. But we think it’s absolutely one worth waging. In particular, losing the author of the Green New Deal bill to a primary challenger with sketchy climate credentials will signal to the DC punditosphere that the Green New Deal isn’t being taken seriously. We have to reelect Ed Markey.
