Peter Roskam (IL6) Cites His Membership In Climate Solutions Caucus - His LCV Lifetime Rating - 3
A Republican congressman, who is in a tight reelection race against a Democrat to continue serving a district in the Chicago suburbs, is touting his membership in the House Climate Solutions Caucus as a reason to vote for him. His voting record, however, tells a different story.
At a televised debate in Chicago Monday night, Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) and his Democratic challenger, Sean Casten, were asked by the moderator to describe how worried they are about climate change and the dire predictions in the new U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. Roskam told the moderator that he was concerned enough about climate change to join the House Climate Solutions Caucus and “be a part of a group that’s trying to come up with a remedy.”
EDIT
But Roskam’s record undercuts the notion that he’s sincerely invested in the issue. In 2006, while campaigning for the House of Representatives, the then-Illinois state senator described climate science as “junk science” during a debate with Tammy Duckworth. More recently, Roskam has earned a shockingly low 3 percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters, based on its environmental scorecard of 2017 voting records. In response to the same question from the moderator about climate change, Casten, who has a long history of working to reduce carbon pollution, emphasized that “climate change is the existential challenge of our lifetime.” “I’ve dedicated my life to it. Peter has referred to it as junk science for much of his career,” Casten said.
EDIT
Despite touting his membership in the Climate Solutions Caucus, Roskam voted to approve the anti-climate bill amendment that would have prevented the Pentagon from tackling climate change. Granted, the vote occurred before Roskam became a member of the Climate Solutions Caucus. Given the timing of the vote on the defense authorization amendment — it occurred in a non-election year — it’s fair to assume Roskam cast his anti-climate action vote based on his true feelings about climate change and his belief that climate science is “junk science.”
EDIT
https://thinkprogress.org/house-candidate-uses-membership-in-climate-caucus-as-cover-for-abysmal-environmental-record-03b9502f6155/
