For Immediate
Release:
July 17, 2012
Contact: Maggie Kao, 202-675-2384
New TV Ad: Heather Wilson Shielded Big Oil Interests despite Toxic Water
Pollution
Sierra Club Targets Wilson for Dirty Water and Dirty Politics
WATCH THE AD HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz62fMb02QQ&feature=youtu.be
Albuquerque, NM – Today, the Sierra Club launched the second ad in a 2,300-point television ad campaign. The ad, titled “Drinking Fountain,” highlights Congresswoman Heather Wilson’s consistent record of voting to put the interests of her Big Oil campaign donors ahead of the health and safety of New Mexico families. The six-figure, high-saturation ad buy will be seen by viewers in the Albuquerque metro area an average of a dozen times in the next two weeks.
The ad highlights Wilson’s multiple votes to shield chemical manufacturers and oil companies from accountability for their contamination of hundreds of groundwater sites and multiple water systems throughout New Mexico with MTBE. MTBE is a toxic gasoline additive rated as a “potential human carcinogen” by the Environmental Protection Agency. These same MTBE producers and Big Oil companies also contributed thousands upon thousands of dollars to Wilson’s campaign coffers.
“Big Oil and chemical companies poisoned the drinking water of thousands of New Mexicans, threatening the health of our families and putting our kids at risk,” said David Farrell, Sierra Club Political Chair for the Southern Group, Rio Grande Chapter. “Instead of holding these polluters accountable, Heather Wilson took their money and voted to let them off the hook.”
While accepting more than $60,000 from MTBE producers and oil companies facing lawsuits for toxic MTBE contamination, Wilson voted four times for legislation that would protect those same companies from liability for their dangerous pollution. To date, Wilson has taken more than $700,000 from oil and gas companies.
The new ad is part of a coalition effort by environmental and conservation groups to defeat Wilson and support the campaign of Congressman Martin Heinrich, who has a strong record of voting to protect clean air, clean water, and the health of New Mexico families while creating thousands of new clean energy jobs.
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Paid for by Sierra Club Political Committee, www.sierraclub.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. |