What do Republicans have against clean water, anyway? Do they all have something against it? Sometimes you'd think so, given the ongoing anti-environmental assault by teahadists in Congress. Closer to home, check out the following press release from the Chap Petersen for Senate reelection campaign for yet another example of this phenomenon. In this case, we have another apparently fanatic, anti-environment, extreme Teapublican candidate opposing a crucial environmental law, one that passed the Virginia Senate AND House unanimously (and was signed by Gov. McDonnell), that was totally non-controversial, and that clearly needed. Why is she opposing it? Because she claims it "was using environmental laws to shut down a local business." This is, frankly, nuts. By Culipher's "reasoning" (to use the word VERY loosely), if a corporation wanted to dump nuclear waste and coal sludge in the middle of your neighborhood, any effort to oppose that would be going against business and should be opposed. I mean, seriously, where do Republicans FIND these crazy candidates?!? Anyway, I'm just glad that Chap Petersen's in the State Senate, and that he's likely to be reelected (overwhelmingly, if his opponent is really this extreme) in a few weeks. Go Chap!
A Clear Choice: Chap Petersen for Fairfax
Culipher attacks Petersen for standing up to the owners of the Pickett Road Tank Farm, saying, "It's not the role of the legislature" to protect our communities from a known environmental polluter.
Vienna, VA- At Thursday's debate at American Legion Post 177 in the Town of Vienna, Republican challenger Gerarda Culipher criticized Senator Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax) for bringing legislation to clean up the Pickett Road Tank Farm, which has been a continuing source of petroleum spills and water contamination for the past twenty years.
"I'm proud to have stood up to the owners of the Pickett Road Tank Farm for their disregard for our families, our waterways and Fairfax, because legislation that I sponsored they will have to come up to current safety standards or shut down" said Senator Petersen.
SB 843 was sponsored by Delegate David Bulova in the House of Delegates and supported at the local level by Fairfax City Mayor Rob Lederer and passed the State Senate passed the bill in an unanimously vote of 40-0 and it passed the House of Delegates 99-0.
In criticizing Petersen's legislation -- which passed the Assembly unanimously and was signed by Governor McDonnell -- Culipher stated that Petersen "was using environmental laws to shut down a local business."
"It's amazing that my opponent would criticize a law that protected our community in central Fairfax from uncontrolled toxic spills. This is putting right-wing ideology above public safety." Senator Petersen added.
From the Vienna Patch: "In our country and in our Commonwealth, court systems offer redress. Injunctive powers insist on equity and thus mandate behavior in a more legitimate way than de jour regulatory schemes that can be influenced by political whim. State law of tort and our courts of equity do identify, adjudge and stop demonstrable injury in our local communities. Our environment is too precious to be tossed about by politicians with a microphone in their hand. Culipher wrote.
Does anyone know what Gerarda Culipher's even talking about with this crap? By the way, does she mean "de jour" or "de jure" or what? What a bizarre statement.
The purpose of Blue Virginia is to cover Virginia politics from a progressive and Democratic perspective. This is a group blog and a community blog. We invite everyone to comment here, but please be aware that profanity, personal attacks, bigotry, insults, rudeness, frequent unsupported or off-point statements, and "trolling" (NOTE: that includes outright lies, whether about climate science, or what other people said, or whatever) are not permitted and, if continued, will lead to banning. For more on trolling, see the Daily Kos FAQs. Also note that diaries may be deleted if they do not contain at least 2 solid paragraphs of original text; if not, please use the comments section of a relevant diary. For more on writing diaries, click here. Thanks, and enjoy!
