Some may see our Senator Sherrod Brown as a working people’s champion. After all, he has stood behind trade unions, fought for better wages and safer working conditions, and has battled his entire career in Congress to see a return to steel manufacturing in cities like Lorain and Canton. Senator Brown has managed to do this while maintaining a lifetime LCV score of 93%
However, at the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund, we like to focus on our environment, which is another area he has championed throughout his career as Ohio’s voice in our nation’s capital.
Sen. Brown is a tireless advocate for a clean Lake Erie, healthier air, and the protection of public lands! He and his colleague across the aisle, Sen. Rob Portman, have both advocated for full funding of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which not only provides communities with water quality assessment resources, but also allows for river restoration efforts and agricultural runoff mitigation programs in farming communities. Sen.Brown realizes the health of Lake Erie has a clear link to the vibrancy of our economy and the health of our people.
Sherrod Brown has worked to ensure that our drinking water is safe. Two of Brown's proposals to protect drinking water from lead were signed into law in 2016. The first would help school districts and daycare centers test drinking water for potential lead contamination. The second would require the EPA to notify the public of excessive levels of lead in drinking water if the local or state agency did not do so within fifteen days.
Last year, Sen. Brown stood up to protect the Bureau of Land Management’s Methane Rule, which helps decrease the leakage and flaring of over $300 million in natural gas that is typically wasted each year from our public/tribal lands; which provides up to $800 million in royalty revenues to states, tribes, and federal taxpayers over the next decade. The Methane Rule also reduces the methane pollution that exacerbates climate change, as well as hazardous air pollutants that damage the health of local communities by contributing to increased asthma attacks and other respiratory ailments. Sen.Sherrod Brown has repeatedly voted for increases in clean energy use, as well as ending financial handouts to coal companies.
Sen. Brown has also championed the protection of federal land across our nation, which belong to every single Ohioan and every citizen of the United States. He voted last year to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil and gas drilling, and in 2016 he voted to protect the Antiquities Act, which establishes National Parks. Additionally, Sen. Brown has championed the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Conservation Reserve Program. Together, these two programs reward agricultural producers who help conserve critical natural resources on more than 75 million acres of farm and ranch land in the United States.
Sen. Brown cares about the health and well-being of all Ohioans. He has continuously shown his commitment to public health and our natural resources through his votes in Congress. What more should we expect from a congressman who has lived on the shores of Lake Erie in Lorain, and now lives just 25 miles away in Cleveland!