Yesterday, Republicans on the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee released a report attacking Bold Nebraska as a “faux grassroots” group that is “an arm of the Billionaire’s Club… a shield for wealthy and distant non-Nebraskan interests who seek to advance a political agenda.” [1]
We’re disgusted that these Republicans are using taxpayers’ money to attack citizen-led groups working to protect our property rights and water.
We know it’s people like you — landowners, farmers, ranchers, Native Americans, and citizens of the rural towns and big cities of Nebraska, who care about protecting land and water, and taking action on climate change — who are the ONLY reason that Bold Nebraska exists.
You are the reason why our movement has grown bigger and our voices louder over the past five years.
Of course, this hyper-partisan report fails to mention the gigantic Big Oil campaign contributions to its Republican authors. On average, each Republican member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has received $736,650 in contributions from Big Oil and other fossil fuel corporations since 1999. [2]
The GOP report also conveniently omits the tens of millions that Big Oil funnels annually to lobbyists and truly “faux grassroots” groups like “Nebraskans for Jobs & Energy Independence,” a group created by a TransCanada lobbyist, and the local head of the building trade union that backs the Keystone XL pipeline. [3]
Bold Nebraska takes our marching orders from farmers and ranchers, and we invite the authors of this report to come visit Nebraska and witness our actions in person.
“As a Republican cattleman from Nebraska I take great offense at this attack on Jane Kleeb and Bold Nebraska,” Randy Thompson, a plaintiff in the court case challenging TransCanada’s Keystone XL route in court, said after seeing the report.
“Ms. Kleeb has been doing for Nebraska farmers and ranchers what our own Republican elected officials should have been doing but refuse to do. I think it says a lot about the GOP when they take issue with someone who is actually standing up for people’s property rights instead of the interests of multinational corporations.”
The Republicans’ report also mentions the New Energy Voter initiative, and points to the involvement of two local chapter groups created by citizens in our state — the Nebraska Sierra Club and 350. org Nebraska — as somehow evidence that we’re “out-of-state” and “not grassroots.”
Of course, the GOP report doesn’t bother to even explain what “New Energy” in the name means. Our state ranks a dismal 46th in the nation for renewable energy generation, despite Nebraska being ranked 4th among the states for wind generating potential, and 12th for solar. The New Energy Voter initiative was created to help elect new local representatives who will push for greater investment in clean, renewable energy in our state on public power boards and elsewhere.
This latest attack on Bold Nebraska shows how powerful Big Oil can be when it calls in its chits on all the campaign contributions it gives to Congress.
But you can count on us to keep standing strong, with farmers and ranchers like Randy Thompson, to defend property rights and our land, water and climate for future generations.
Thanks for all you do.
Jane Kleeb and the Bold Nebraska team
REFERENCES:
1. “The Chain of Environmental Command,” Senate EPW Cmte Minority Staff Report, 7/30/14
2. Oil Change International, DirtyEnergyMoney.com, 7/30/14
3. “LIUNA Partners With Anti-Union Forces, AFP, ALEC, Koch,” BoldNebraska.org, 2/24/13
