Environmentalists launch $1 million campaign to defeat Scott Walker

 The Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters and the national League of Conservation Voters this week launched a $1 million campaign targeting Gov. Scott Walker.

The Republican’s anti-environment record has put Wisconsin into the LCV’s “Dirty Dozen in the States.”

The campaign targeting Walker, who faces Democrat Mary Burke on Nov. 4, includes TV ads and mail.

WLCV’s TV ad, which begins airing today, can be viewed at: Conservation Voters Ad.

LCV’s “Dirty Dozen in the States” highlights 12 of the most anti-conservation state-level candidates from around the country.

“From letting polluters off the hook when they contaminate our water to making clean energy a thing of the past, Gov. Walker has made one thing perfectly clear: in Gov. Walker’s Wisconsin, big polluters are rewarded – and the rest of us are left to pay the price,” said Kerry Schumann, Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters executive director. “Gov. Walker was an obvious choice for the Dirty Dozen list.”

Added Gene Karpinski, president of the national league, “States are playing an increasingly important role in determining how our country meets the challenges of clean air, clean water, and climate change. With so much at stake, it’s absolutely critical that voters defeat politicians who stand with corporate polluters and elect environmental leaders at the state and local level who will move us toward a clean energy future.” 

The groups’ said:

Not only did Walker support the mining bill — written by an out-of-state mining company — that allows mining companies to expose our families to arsenic, lead, and mercury, but the company, Gogebic Taconite, secretly donated $700,000 to Wisconsin Club for Growth, a group actively supporting Walker.

Since Walker took office, enforcement against illegal polluters has dropped 45 percent. One of those illegal polluters, Herr Environmental, was treating fields with 300 percent as much human waste as their permit allowed, endangering 40 nearby drinking water wells.