Vets' group urges McConnell, Lugar, Bayh to fight for clean energy bill

By James Carroll  |  Courier Journal, Louisville, KY  |  View story in the original context
PUBLISHED: February 11, 2010

WASHINGTON - A veterans' group is airing television ads in Kentucky and Indiana calling on three of the states' four U.S. senators to support legislation aimed at reducing the nation's dependence on foreign oil.

The ads, sponsored by the nonpartisan group VoteVets.org, are aimed at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Indiana Sens. Evan Bayh, a Democrat, and Richard Lugar, a Republican.

The Kentucky ads call on McConnell to return $150,000 in campaign contributions from oil companies that, according to the veterans' group, do business in countries with ties to terrorists. The ad lists those countries as Yemen, Iran, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Algeria and Nigeria.

"Senator McConnell, it's time to put America's security ahead of your own politics," George Zubaty, an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran from Warsaw, Ky., says in the ad.

The Indiana ads feature Dylan Meadows, of West Lafayette, an Iraq war veteran who urges viewers to call Bayh and Lugar and "tell them to stand up to Big Oil and stand up for American security."

The veterans want McConnell, Bayh, Lugar and other senators to support clean energy legislation passed by the House last June that is aimed at reducing global warming by cutting carbon emissions. The bill passed with little Republican backing and 44 House Democrats against it. It faces an uncertain future in the Senate.

McConnell spokesman Robert Steurer said in an e-mail that the senator "has a strong record of supporting legislation to make America more energy independent.

"Senator McConnell has encouraged the administration to produce more domestic clean energy, including building more clean nuclear power plants, increasing offshore exploration for oil and gas where states want to do so, and developing clean coal technologies. The president expressed support for these proposals in his recent State of the Union Address," Steurer said.

Bayh and Lugar did not respond to requests for comment.

The veterans' ads are part of a $2 million television campaign that includes a national ad and separate ads targeting lawmakers in seven states. Besides Kentucky and Indiana, they are being run in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, South Dakota and Wyoming. The ads run through Feb. 21.

VoteVets is spending $250,000 on the ads in Kentucky, which are running on Louisville and Lexington broadcast and cable outlets.

"The fight to get off Middle East oil is a matter of life and death for those of us who serve this country," Jon Soltz, an Iraq War veteran and chairman of VoteVets.org, said in a statement. "Every day Congress delays action is another day they are siding with oil companies and against our veterans."

Steurer said some energy measures are proposing new national energy taxes, which he said would increase energy prices and cost millions of jobs.

"Senator McConnell knows this is the wrong approach - particularly at a time when we are trying to grow good jobs here at home," Steurer said.

But Andrew Horne, a member of the veterans' group, said in a call with reporters Thursday that McConnell has a choice.

"Is he going to be on the side of Big Oil or on the side of troops and veterans?" asked Horne, a Louisville Marine Corps colonel who is a veteran of Afghanistan and a former Democratic candidate for Congress.

Reporter James R. Carroll can be reached at (202) 906-8141.