Sinema Still Silent As The Doors Swing Shut On Last Opportunity For Large-Scale US Climate Action [View all]

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In Kyrsten Sinema’s 2009 book, Unite and Conquer: How to Build Coalitions That Win and Last, she described the necessity of working with Republicans so she could “get something done.” But after months when Sen. Sinema (D-Ariz.) has defiantly snubbed a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package that contains the bulk of President Joe Biden’s plan for tackling climate change, many Democrats think she just may have gone too far.

“Now she’s working with Republicans to get nothing done,” said Sandy Bahr, executive director of the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club. “If she’s not supporting strong climate policy, then she’s definitely out of step with Arizonans,” said Bahr, a veteran environmental activist who has worked for Sinema’s campaigns and who said that, in a state with too little water and way too much heat, voters grasp the need for urgent climate action.

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And Rep. Ro Khanna of California has been listing his grievances with Sinema in interviews with multiple news outlets: It is “insane” that the Arizona senator won’t say what she likes and dislikes about the reconciliation proposal, Khanna told Axios, unlike Manchin, who made it clear in the press and to colleagues. “You know exactly where he’s coming from,” Khanna said. To NPR, he added, “You have no sense of how she plans to get the revenue, you have no sense of what she wants in there, what she’s not for, and that’s what makes it so difficult.”

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The League of Conservation Voters said Sinema cast pro-environment votes only 62 percent of the time in 2020 for the second lowest score among Senate Democrats and just above Manchin’s 54 percent; Democratic senators overall averaged scores of more than 90 percent. Then-Congresswoman Sinema was one of seven House Democrats in 2018 who voted with the GOP majority in favor of a non-binding resolution denouncing carbon taxes. As a senator, she voted to confirm President Donald Trump’s appointees in key environmental positions, while supporting a resolution to allow his rollbacks of environmental regulations and opposing the Green New Deal. National groups are stepping up their efforts targeting Sinema’s politics, too.

R.L. Miller, founder of California-based Climate Hawks Vote, pointed out that Sinema was named this summer as one of the 11 senators who Exxon regards as central to its efforts to derail national climate legislation. She said Sinema has failed to make positive contributions to climate policy and could face an intra-party challenge for reelection because she’s refusing to support the Democratic agenda at this crucial time.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01102021/kyrsten-sinema-reconciliation-climate-change/