'Green' groups attack Altmire

[SteelCityDem]

Two environmental groups on Thursday began airing a television ad attacking U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire for "siding with corporate polluters" by voting for bills to block or repeal Environmental Protection Agency restrictions on airborne toxins from boilers, incinerators, power plants and other sources.

The nonprofit League of Conservation Voters and the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund spent $350,000 to produce the 32-second ad that will run for two weeks on network and cable channels in Pennsylvania's 4th Congressional District, which runs from New Castle to Murrysville. The ad is offered amid growing debate between clean air advocates and energy companies over implementing EPA regulations intended to cut the amount of carcinogens, smog and soot caused by power plants and heavy industry.

It urges people to tell Altmire, a McCandless Democrat, "to stop voting against kids' health." It cites a 2009 federal study that says the mercury level in 9 percent of women of child-bearing age in the Northeast is generally higher than levels found in women ages 16-49 elsewhere.

Read more: 'Green' groups attack Altmire - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_765456.html#ixzz1ckUyWNxg

[Divernan]

1. Altmire a former lobbyist for Big Health Care(UPMC) & toes the line for all corporate interests

He's the Congressman for my district. I don't say "my congressman" because he opposes every progressive value I hold.

Every other progressive Dem I know in Allegheny County considers his election a big mistake on the part of the Dem. party. The problem is that he has built up such a war chest by selling his vote repeatedly to various "Big" interests, that it will be very difficult for anyone to successfully primary him.

I think his former employer and major sponsor, UPMC is positioning Altmire to run for the Senate (gag!) UPMC talked former Monroeville Mayor and then State Senator, Sean Logan into resigning his state senate seat, MID TERM, to take over Altmire's old lobbying job. I recall Sean making the "spend-more-time-with-my-family" excuse, but as UPMC's lobbyist, he'll spend more time in Harrisburg and DC, and away from his family, then he did as State Senator, but for better pay. Sean was a very ambitious politician. Those guys don't change.

I have NO doubt the promise was that UPMC will buy Altmire's Congressional House Seat for Sean when Altmire moves up.