Americans Now More Politically Polarized On Climate Change Than Ever Before, Analysis Finds

 

By Graham Readfearn • Wednesday, August 31, 2016 - 10:49

 

American voters and politicians are now more polarized than ever before across all aspects of climate change  — from the cause, to the science and the impacts — a major new analysis has found.

Campaigns funded by vested fossil fuel interests and pushed by a network of ideological think tanks, many linked to the oil billionaire Koch brothers, have helped to widen the gap, pushing Republican politicians, elites and voters away from action on greenhouse gas emissions.

Tracking Gallup opinion poll surveys going back to 2001 and congress voting patterns from 1970 onwards, the analysis authors warn that as the November election approaches, Americans are faced with a stark political choice.

The analysis is published in the respected journal Environment and comes from sociologists Associate Professor Aaron McCright of Michigan State University, Professor Riley Dunlap of Oklahoma State University, and PhD researcher Jerrod Yarosh also at Oklahoma.

The researchers found the widest gaps between Democrats and Republicans come when they are asked about the causes of climate change and if the media exaggerates the seriousness of the issue.

While virtually all climate scientists and the world's leading scientific academies have long agreed that the burning of fossil fuels is causing climate change, only about half Republicans accept the science.

A Republican controlled Congress, the article says, would be a “huge step backward in our nation’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions” and could also undermine international cooperation, especially if Republican nominee Donald Trump won the Presidency.

“Whether, and how, individual Americans vote this November may well be the most consequential climate-related decision most of them will have ever taken,” the authors conclude.

Stark Choices

Dunlap told DeSmog the choice facing US voters was glaring.

“Looking back, Gore versus Bush was stark, although Bush hid his denial for a bit.  But now the partisan differences on climate change are out in the open, and the choices from the top down are stark.”

The Koch brothers had led a network of “conservative mega-donors” that had created a “shadow GOP” that had managed to reduce the influence of the Republican National Committee, the analysis argues.

These efforts, the article explains, have blocked legislation, limited international negotiations and made rejection of climate science  “normative” among Republican elites and activists.

Widening Gaps

Dunlap, McCright and Yarosh looked at how elected Democrats and Republicans had voted on environment and climate bills in both houses of Congress since 1970, using data from the League of Conservation Voters.  The researchers found:

What was once a modest tendency for Congressional Republicans to be less pro-environmental than their Democratic counterparts has become a chasm—with Republicans taking near-unanimous anti-environmental stances on relevant legislation in recent years, especially 2015.

Since 2001 polling company Gallup has been asking US voters for their views on aspects of climate change, such as if they think it’s happening, if it’s caused by humans and if they are concerned about it.

In 2001, 53 percent of Republican voters agreed that global warming was caused by humans, compared with 70 percent of Democrats — a gap of 17 percentage points. But by 2016, this gap had blown out to 41 percentage points, with only 43 percent of Republican voters accepting climate change is human-caused.

These “partisan gaps” had widened across all areas since 2008, except when voters were asked if they thought global warming had already started, where the gap remained at 34 percentage points.

Bridging the Gap?

Alongside the analysis, the authors look at various attempts to bring Republicans closer to accepting the realities of climate change, such as changing communication strategies. The writers claim:

Does any persuasive framing strategy hold special promise for penetrating Republicans’ partisan/ideological identities? The evidence so far gives little basis for optimism.

The sociologists say one major reason why attempts to better communicate the realities of climate change to conservatives have failed is down to “motivated cognition” — described as the tendency for people to only accept information that reinforces their existing political beliefs and their views on the world.

Even when Republicans experience extreme weather events, there was little evidence that this was enough for those voters to change their views. Dunlap told DeSmog:

“I fear polarization will be difficult to overcome because Republican reluctance to accept the reality and seriousness of human-caused climate change is in a self-reinforcing loop.  

There are top-down cues from Republican political elites and their supporters from conservative think tanks to conservative media — especially the Murdoch media— that influence voters, as well as bottom-up pressure from party activists such as Tea Party supporters who act as ‘enforcers’ of party principles, especially in primary elections to select Republican candidates.

The result is that global warming has joined God, guns, gays, and abortion as core elements of Republican identity, and this will be hard to change.”

Above is from:  http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/08/31/americans-now-more-politically-polarized-climate-change-ever-analysis-finds

SupplyCore CEO Peter Provenzano and six others form Rockford political action committee

 

Staff writer

Posted Aug. 29, 2016 at 8:48 PM
Updated Aug 29, 2016 at 10:29 PM

ROCKFORD — Seven business people, led by SupplyCore CEO Peter Provenzano, have established a political action committee that will bankroll candidates who aspire to put the community's needs above their own and are transparent in their political dealings.

Rockford Regional Good Government PAC was established in May and will start its work in the coming weeks, Provenzano said, as he and others stock the PAC fund with cash.

“We're going to have roughly $100,000 raised within next few weeks,” said Provenzano, who is chairman of the committee. “We're finalizing the initial amounts and asks, and that will all become known as the paperwork is filed. I plan to be supportive of the PAC. I know some of the other board members plan to be supportive as well. Other community members will be engaged, and we hope many others follow. We want to establish a fund that is sustainable, something that lasts longer than me or than any one person.”

The Rockford PAC “embraces the core belief that our community should aspire to elect officials who put the community first, work to employ best practices and are distinguished by characteristics that include incorruptibility, accountability and appreciation for diverse points of view,” according to the group's value statement.

Besides Provenzano, other members of the Rockford PAC board are Workplace Staffing CEO LoRayne Logan; Rockford University Director of Career Development Maurice West II; SockTABs owner Tracie Burress; Montel Technologies owner Ray Montelongo; Reno & Zahm attorney and partner Ian Linnabary; and Bryan Davis, Supplycore vice president of government affairs and community engagement.

“We're going to be paying attention to the positions our elected officials take and gauging the consistency of those positions against what we've identified as our community vision and values,” Provenzano said. “And we'll be paying attention in between campaign cycles, too.”

The Rockford PAC will soon feature an application on its website — rockfordpac.org — that candidates can fill out and submit. The form will give the committee a sense of the candidate's political viewpoints and stance on various issues, Provenzano saod. The committee would then schedule interviews with candidates and determine what level of funding, if any, they'd receive.

The Rockford PAC will support state and local candidates in the Rockford region and may lend its financial support to ballot initiatives, too, Provenzano said. It was not established to support any particular candidate or cause, he said. Provenzano and several other members of the Rockford PAC are active supporters of Transform Rockford, the nonprofit group that aims to make Rockford a top-tier U.S. city by 2025. Though Rockford PAC is not affiliated with Transform Rockford, Provenzano said he and other members of the PAC board embrace the same shared values, which include transparency, showing concern for the welfare of others and reliable communication.

The Rockford PAC's statement of organization notes that all of its money shall be transferred to Transform Rockford in the event that the political action committee is dissolved.

Isaac Guerrero: 815-987-1361; iguerrero@rrstar.com; @isaac_rrs

About Rockford PAC

Go to rockfordpac.org to learn more about the Rockford Regional Good Government Political Action Committee.

The $50 Billion Illinois Favor Factory Hums Along

 

Adam Andrzejewski ,  

Contributor

I cover the “daily greed” of national, state, and local politics.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

It’s been two years since Illinois state government had a full-year budget. Now, more than 70,000 vendors are owed $8.2 billion. Yet, despite the legislative deadlock and seemingly fiscal insolvency, more than $50 billion in state payments flowed to providers and other entities in FY2016.

So, who actually got paid and for how much while others waited in the long line of unpaid bills?

Recently, our organization at American Transparency (website: OpenTheBooks.com) filed our annual Freedom of Information Act request with Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger (R) for the state’s checkbook payments. Here’s what we found: 56,738 recipients received fast-tracked payments of $50,125,427,171.

We plotted the recipients by ZIP code – review your neighborhood or look across the entire country. Just zoom-in, click a ZIP code pin, and scroll down to see the results rendered in the chart below the map.

The top 25 accounts paid by the Comptroller received $21.8 billion. The vast majority of the payments were for social safety-net healthcare providers ($5.9 billion); the Teachers Retirement System pension payment ($3.224 billion); Cook County ($2.7 billion); Chicago Board of Education ($2.1 billion); Regional Transportation Authority ($1.7 billion); and transfer payments to the state treasurer or banks.

Here are some of the entities receiving the large state payments in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016:

• Road contractors and construction companies ($1.4 billion) – 45 companies received more than $1 million. Here’s the top five: Plote Construction Inc. ($300.4 million); Lorig Construction Company ($225.4 million); Walsh Construction Co. ($151.9 million); D Construction Inc. ($147.5 million); and E T Simonds Construction Co. ($61.98 million).
• Cities and Villages ($6 billion) – Chicago received $1.7 billion. But even the uber-wealthy North Shore communities received tens of millions of dollars:  Highland Park ($20.4 million); Wilmette ($9.3 million); Glencoe ($3.4 million); Lake Forest ($7.2 million); and Kenilworth ($421,200). My hometown of Hinsdale in DuPage County received $7.5 million.
• Counties ($4.3 billion) – Here are the top five:  Cook County ($2.7 billion); DuPage County ($183.9 million); Lake County ($132.4 million); Will County ($98.5 million); and Kane County ($70.6 million).

Over the past two years, we’ve seen a patchwork of state budget stop-gap spending measures, federal and state court ordered disbursements, and the prioritization of state payments from the growing list of unpaid vendors. 

Recommended by Forbes

Yet, even in a fiscal crisis, the state isn’t embracing basic spending reforms.

For example, in 2016, Comptroller Leslie Munger continued to pay a lobbyist $50,000 out of her own budget. More than $370,000 in payments flowed to lobbyist Shea, Paige and Rogal since 2009 (a key executive is the chairman emeritus of the IL Republican Party) even though state agencies are barred by law from contracting with lobbyists. So, how is this legal?

Since 2005, $178.1 million in taxpayer funds flowed through J. Walter Thompson (JWT), one of the world’s largest advertising agencies. Last year, JWT got $1.049 million from the Illinois Tourism Board. Why is the state wasting any money on Public Relations?

While unpaid social service providers sue the state, what is the compelling public purpose to pay paving contractors to spread a little more asphalt on the roads that may not be in need of vital repairs?  Vendors with the word “paving” or “asphalt” in their names received payments of $260 million in FY2016. 

Last summer, at Forbes, I wrote about Comptroller Munger’s refusal to pay vendors serving our most vulnerable citizens – the developmentally disabled.  She wrongly claimed a lack of constitutional authority until a federal judge threatened her with contempt-of-court. Now we find Munger paid $9.4 million to Planned Parenthood over two years – including payments for abortions.

Over the past two years, Munger also fast-tracked $1.7 million in payments to refugee relocation firms. While Governor Bruce Rauner stopped additional refugees from Syria, World Relief Refugee Services – one of 10 organizations contracted with the U.S. Department of State to resettle refugees into Illinois – helped relocate approximately 1,200 refugees from countries like Iraq, Sudan, Congo and Myanmar (Burma).

Despite a two-year budget stand-off, taxpayer dollars continue to flow to insiders…

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) already employs 1,133 civil engineers and 1,155 engineering techs. So why did Illinois pay millions of dollars over the last two-years to civil engineering firms like ESI Consultants ($3.7 million) and other firms at huge hourly rates?

The Illinois credit ranking is the lowest of all 50 states. But, the public patronage machine rolls on.

IDOT is the historic haven of Illinois political patronage. Today, August 31st, Munger cut $4.1 million of “performance bonus” checks to 1,320 IDOT employees – members of the Teamsters. That’s a handout, not a performance bonus, when one of every two eligible IDOT employees qualifies for a first time ever pay enhancement. To see the list, click here.

Last spring, I documented 50,000 state and local public employees making $100,000+ costing taxpayers $8 billion annually. Currently, there are 7,500 school administrators and teachers with $100,000+ pensions – a number we forecast to increase to 20,000 by 2022.

At the Illinois State Fair on Republican Day 2016, Comptroller Leslie Munger flunked an impromptu math quiz by the Chicago Tribune. She wrongly answered two of three problems – missing 9×3 and 8×7 – then blamed the “hot weather.”

But, excuses are not going to cut it. Transparency and regular reporting will hold their feet to the fire. In Illinois politics, for the new governor and comptroller, the honeymoon with voters is over. The People want real results and are sick and tired of paying the “corruption tax.”

The Chicago machine had 12 years of iron-clad control and succeeded in making Illinois a net-outward migration state, but for the good of Illinois, this crew – from the opposite party – must quickly do much better.

Adam Andrzejewski is CEO of OpenTheBooks.com – the world’s largest private database of government spending with 3 billion captured public expenditures at the Federal, State and local levels across America.

Above is from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2016/08/31/the-50-billion-illinois-favor-factory-hums-along/#688fb5bc620a

Deadline for railroad alternative routes extended until Sept. 20

By Adam Poulisse
Staff writer

Posted Aug. 31, 2016 at 9:32 PM
Updated Aug 31, 2016 at 9:54 PM

BELVIDERE — The federal Surface Transportation Board today granted Great Lakes Basin Transportation a deadline extension to submit alternative routes to the proposed 278-mile cargo rail line that would cut through prime farmland in Boone County and other communities across the Midwest.

The extension request, submitted Monday by the law firm Venable, LLP, states the rail transportation company's engineering drawings "are to be finalized the week of August 29th, and thereafter presentation maps and a narrative will be developed to accompany those materials."

The new deadline for the railroad company to submit alternative routes is Sept. 20.

The proposed route stretches 278 miles across Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana to avoid Chicago and would provide quicker transportation of goods coast to coast. It has been met with staunch opposition; in Boone County, grassroots organizations such as Citizens Against the Great Lakes Basin Railroad Project have sprung up to provide unified opposition.

Laurie Bozeman, who lives on Edson Road in Capron and is a member of the citizen organization, said prolonging a final decision by the federal transportation agency on the route is "like ripping off a Band-Aid slowly."

"Part of me wishes they would just make a decision," she said. "I'm a little hopeful by them saying they need to have alternate route, it's them saying (Great Lakes Basin Transportation) can't put it here."

The federal agency asked for alternative routes in a letter drafted July 5. It was sent after a series of scoping meetings took place in potentially affected areas. Members of the federal Surface Transportation Board attended the meetings to hear residents speak out. On April 19, hundreds of citizens packed into the Community Building Complex of Boone County to share concerns.

More than 3,500 scoping comments were collected across the region, many suggesting other alternative alignments that should be considered. Feedback will help build an environmental impact study that won't be ready for a few years.

"According to commenters, these alternative alignments could minimize some of the potential environmental impacts of GLBT's proposed rail line construction," the July 5 Surface Transportation Board letter reads. "The alternatives include using underutilized rail routes and existing transportation corridors that, in the commenters' view, could minimize impacts to farms, homes and businesses that would result from the construction of the GLBT's proposed route."

Frank Patton, CEO of Great Lakes Basin Transportation Corp., did not return calls seeking comment.

A specific number of provided alternative routes is not required, but a reasonable range of alternatives must be analyzed per the National Environmental Policy Act.

Adam Poulisse: 815-987-1344;

Above is from:  http://www.rrstar.com/news/20160831/deadline-for-railroad-alternative-routes-extended-until-sept-20