By analyzing data obtained from OpenSecrets in August, the Action Fund found that 193 House Members (all Republicans) and 39 Senators should be noted as “Dirty Air Villains” because of their votes against clean air protections. Of those 232 voting against clean air, 73 of them represent citizens living in some of the 25 most polluted metro areas in the U.S. On the flip side, 99 members of the House and 43 in the Senate are “Clean Air Heroes” for their support of clean air issues. Put simply, those members who consistently voted against clean air are designated as villains while those who voted for it are heroes.

As for why certain members of Congress would vote against clean air and other for it, just by looking at where some campaign donations come from it’s not too hard to difficult to deduct the reason.

Analysis of the data from OpenSecrets found that House members who have taken more than $100,000 in career campaign contributions from polluters are nearly twice as likely to vote against clean air laws than those who took less than $100,000. In the Senate, those members who took more than $500,000 in career campaign contributions from polluters were up to three times as likely to vote against clean air laws. And while everyone knows money talks in Washington, it’s good to know just how much influence it can have over something so important to our nation’s health as clean air.

“Our analysis reveals the full extent of Big Polluters’ reach into Congress, where some members, especially in the Tea party-influenced House, do not miss a single opportunity to side with the dirty industry, leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves,” said Heather Taylor, director of the NRDC Action Fund.

To see if your representative in Congress is voting in favor of you breathing clean air or not, click on over to the “Who Votes Dirty?” report.

[via Huffington Post and NRDC]

Image Credit: Who Votes Dirty?

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The House of Representatives, meanwhile, passed a symbolic measure to erase the incentives. The issue is likely to be decided as part of a major budget battle that is looming at the end of this year.

The renewable energy provisions represent less than $6 billion of the $205 billion package, which passed the committee in a 19-5 vote. Of the funding, $3.3 billion would go to an extension of the federal production tax credit used by the wind industry to keep electricity rates competitive with fossil fuels. The tax credit was originally created in 1992 and has been extended periodically since then. The American Wind Energy Association argues that allowing the credit to expire could mean the loss of 37,000 jobs next year.

The committee’s package also includes extensions of a $1.01 per gallon tax credit for the production of cellulosic biofuel, a credit for biodiesel and renewable diesel and a number of credits encouraging energy efficiency in homes and appliances.

The current wind energy credit is scheduled to expire at the end of this year. The proposed extension, like most of the other renewable energy provisions in the package, would last until the end of 2013. The credit has become a political issue this election year. Mitt Romney has said he would allow it to expire, while President Barack Obama supports keeping it.

Congress has now begun its five-week summer recess. When it starts up again in the fall, the Senate will take up the tax credit package as well as other budget provisions. A major fight over government spending is brewing this year with Bush-era tax cuts set to expire at the end of December and $109 billion in automatic spending cuts planned for Jan. 2, 2013.

Main image credit: angstdei/Flickr

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