Amy Klobuchar isn’t Green

Amy Klobuchar, along with Elizabeth Warren was recently endorsed by the New York Times. Their opinion piece published Jan. 20 said “nearly any of them (presidential candidates) would be the most progressive president in decades on issues like health care, the economy and government’s allocations of resources.” Notice they didn’t mention environment in that sentence. Then they went on to say that “Ms. Klobuchar speaks about issues like climate change.” Keyword there is “speaks.”

Minnesotan’s are all too familiar with how Amy Klobuchar speaks but her actions have left us all wondering which political side she truly belongs on when it comes to addressing climate change, protecting wildlands and wildlife.

What few people outside of Minnesota are aware of is Amy’s record on environmental issues.

In 2009 she co-sponsored a bill with Republican Sen. John Thune to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emission from man-made sources such as the livestock industry and factories.

In opposition to the science and what the Endangered Species Act says about wolf recovery, in 2010 she pushed to have gray wolves removed from the Endangered Species List, which she accomplished, and between 2012-2014 922 wolves were slaughtered. End of 2014 federal judge Beryl Howell placed wolves back under ESA protections.

In 2012 at the Outdoor Heritage Alliance banquet she said she wanted to be the first to kill a wolf. That statement was made at a time nearly 80% of people surveyed in Minnesota said they did not want a wolf hunting or trapping season.

Between 2013-2017 she co-sponsored 3 bills with republican senator John Thune to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating lead in ammunition and fishing tackle to protect wildlife.

In 2013 she co-sponsored the Silviculture Regulatory Consistency Act which amended the Clean Water Act to prohibit the EPA from requiring permits for a discharge of stormwater runoff resulting from silverculture activities.

In 2016 she mocked federal judge Beryl Howell in an interview with State Cattlmen’s Convention.

In 2017, to override the decision by the courts, she co-sponsored a bill with republican Sen. John Barrasso to not only delist wolves once again but this time she included stripping citizens of their legal right to judicial review.

In 2018, she co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Tina Smith to override four separate lawsuits brought by environmental groups against the U.S. Forest Service decision to transfer 6,500+ acres of Superior National Forest lands to PolyMet, a foreign mining corporation. That land exchange violates the Endangered Species Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Weeks Act.

Twin Metals, a Minnesota mining company hoping to build a toxic sulfide mine adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, lists her as a supporter on their website and she has yet to state publicly if she objects to having a sulfide mine so close to the BWCA.

She still refuses to stand with tribal leaders in Minnesota and reject the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline. Line 3 would contribute to global warming and pose a threat to clean water and indigenous lands used for hunting, fishing, and harvesting wild rice.

Is that what the New York Times calls a progressive leader?

The world is watching Australia burn, countless animals die, ice caps are melting, record breaking intense heat waves, droughts and flooding across the globe. Is Amy Klobuchar really the candidate that’s ready to take on the challenge of dealing with climate change and protect our dwindling wildlife population?

This progressive environmentalist says no!

Michelle Valadez is a 6th generation Minnesotan. She’s a wildlife activist for over 25 years and recently founded MinnesotaWildlife.org to educate the public on issues related to wildlife and encourage local activism in order to protect wild creatures and wild places in Minnesota.