The Federalist: Sierra Club targets GOP environmentalist

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Sierra Club targets GOP environmentalist

Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir in Yosemite.

The Sierra Club becomes an arm of the Democratic Party

The Club abandons any pretence at neutrality and joins with Democrats to target a GOP Congressman who supports the Sierra Club position to save Yosemite National Park.

The Sierra Club is spending $625,000 to defeat a Republican lawmaker who has championed one of the environmental organization’s most cherished goals – draining the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park.

GOP's Dan Lungren

As a Conservative Conservationist I think this is an act of insanity. Supporting our parks should be non-partisan. The Sierra Club making themselves an arm of the Democrat Party hurts the conservation movement.

Campaign finance reports show that in September, the Sierra Club Independent Action super political action committee made several expenditures targeting Sacramento area GOP Congressman Dan Lungren of Gold River, who is locked in a tight race against Democrat leftist Dr. Ami Bera, an Elk Grove physician reports California Watch.

The club is paying for a hard-edged series of TV commercials and mailers in the district.

The ads accuse Lungren of “selling out California” and practicing “oily politics,” claiming he favors tax breaks for oil companies and offshore oil drilling.

Hetch Hetchy Valley
In the northwest corner of Yosemite National Park in California. It is currently completely flooded by O'Shaughnessy Dam, forming the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The Tuolumne River fills the reservoir. The reservoir supplies the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct that ships water to liberal San Francisco.
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GOP Congressman Dan Lungren supports the Sierra Club's position to drain the lake and return the valley to its natural beauty. To "reward" Lungren for his support of their positions the Sierra Club (now an arm of the Democrat Party) has targeted him for defeat.
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The San Francisco liberal Democrat leadership has viciously fought the restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley.

Dan Lungren for Congress

Oddly, Lungren is one of a handful of officials who has backed the Sierra Club’s long campaign to breach the O’Shaughnessy Dam on the Tuolumne River and restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley in the Sierra Nevadas. Sierra Club founder John Muir wrote that the 8-mile-long alpine valley was almost as beautiful as Yosemite itself. It was inundated 89 years ago to provide water and hydroelectric power for San Francisco.

Hetch Hetchy Valley before the dam.

Lungren Campaign Manager Jeff Wyly called the club’s campaign against the lawmaker misleading and unfair. Lungren’s record on the environment is “very moderate,” he said, and the lawmaker deserved some consideration from the club because of his longstanding support on the Hetch Hetchy issue.

Moreover, he contended that it’s hypocritical for the club to criticize Lungren for taking political contributions from oil companies. He noted that records show that Bera owns stock in two oil companies, Chevron and Valero Energy.

“We wish the Sierra Club would actually look at who they’re supporting,” Wyly said.

As California Watch has reported, Lungren became interested in restoring Hetch Hetchy while serving in Congress during the Reagan administration.

Discover Hetch Hetchy - Yosemite's Hidden Twin

In 1987, then-Interior Secretary Donald Hodel proposed studying the idea, saying he hoped to create a priceless “second Yosemite” for the nation.

Then and now, the idea was bitterly opposed by San Francisco’s Democratic political leadership. Officials including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have warned that draining the reservoir would result in blackouts and water shortages.

Lungren has raised the idea of reclaiming the mountain valley repeatedly over his political career.

(California Watch)

California's 7th Congressional District west of Sacramento.

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Thomas Pinckney, Federalist

Commissioned as captain in the 1st South Carolina Regiment of the Continental Army. After seeing much action, he became an aide-de-camp to General Horatio Gates. He was captured by the British at the disastrous Battle of Camden in 1780. After recovering from his wounds, he was released in a prisoner exchange. In 1781 he fought under Lafayette in Virginia. Appointed by President George Washington to be the U.S. minister to Great Britain served as Envoy Extraordinary to Spain. The Federalist Party made him a candidate in the 1796 presidential election as the intended running-mate of John Adams. Served as Congressman and Governor of South Carolina. Served as a major general in the Army during the War of 1812.

Henry Lee III, Federalist

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David Cobb, Federalist

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Josiah Parker, Federalist

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John Rutledge, Jr., Federalist

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Philip Barton Key, Federalist

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