The last government shut down cost our nation billions, but Republicans are thinking about doing it all over again just to protect Big Oil and the Coal Lobby. This week, Senate Republicans held appropriations bills hostage in an attempt to cut off funding for the Environmental Protection Agency. Their latest round of hostage-taking is a response to President Obama announcing an executive order on coal pollution, and to EPA Chair Gina McCarthy's recent comment about a “War on Coal.”

Shutting down the EPA could endanger millions of Americans with dirty air and water, but that's fine with Republicans as long as the Oil and Coal lobby money keeps rolling in. The Right claims that regulating coal pollution might hurt our economy and cost thousands of jobs, but there's no question that another government shutdown would have those exact same effects. Republicans don't give a damn about how regulations effect Americans. They only care about the billions of dollars that these industries pump into campaigns.

President Obama has repeatedly tried to work with Congress to enact climate change legislation, but they left him no choice other than to act on his own. Scientists, economists, labor groups, and the vast majority of Americans all agree that we must take immediate action to fight global warming. Rather than debating how we do that, Republicans are putting their heads in the sand and protecting the fossil fuel industry at all costs.

Perhaps they don't remember their poll numbers after the last government shut down – but we do. Come November, Americans will let Republicans know exactly what we think about lawmakers who put corporate greed ahead of the needs of We The People.