Green ads hit vulnerable GOP senators for climate votes

A green group is running advertisements hitting two vulnerable Republican senators for votes that support a “big polluter agenda.”

The ads shame Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), both of whom face reelection next year, for voting “against safeguards that keep our air and water clean and our climate safe,” said the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which bought the ads.

{mosads}“But they don’t get a free pass,” Pete Altman, director of NRDC’s climate campaign, said in a statement.

“We’re making sure Ohioans and Pennsylvanians know their senators want to let polluters dump more dangerous pollution into our air and water, to put future generations at risk,” he said.

The NRDC spent six figures on the campaign, meant to coincide with votes on the House and Senate GOP budgets, both of which have many environmental and energy provisions that green groups oppose. The ads are running on newspaper websites and other digital platforms, the NRDC said.

The group is also running ads to laud Sens. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) for their votes, which the group sees as supporting action to fight climate change and pollution while encouraging the use of renewables.

Ayotte is also up for reelection in 2016 and has been identified as a top target for Democrats.

Those senators “have bucked the big polluters by voting to protect their constituents’ health and their states’ future,” said Altman.

The ads say Portman and Toomey “voted for polluters, not people,” and thank the other senators for protecting the their states’ children or future.