Ad Targets Blunt on Cap & Trade, While Carnahan's Position Remains Unclear

A new ad by the League of Conservation Voters focuses on the campaign contributions Congressman Roy Blunt has received from energy companies and links the donations to his vote against controversial energy and climate legislation, also known as "cap and trade."

The fairly boilerplate attack ad begun airing Tuesday in Columbia-Jefferson City, Kansas City and Springfield media markets.

"They sent in their lobbyists, they contributed to your campaign . . . And when it was time to vote for the Clean Energy and Security Act, you voted 'NO,'" charges the ad.

*WATCH THE AD HERE*

The ad claims that cap and trade legislation would create 1.7 million new jobs, but it cites the liberal think tank, Center for American Progress, to get to that number. The problem is that while even some Republicans have acknowledged the legislation would create a bundle of new "green jobs," other manufacturing jobs could be lost due to higher energy costs.

Ozarks area utilities have also estimated that the cap and trade legislation would add about $20 a month to the bill of residential customers. WATCH THE KY3 NEWS REPORT HERE.

AND: Congressman Blunt has said cap and trade would also increase costs disproportionately on Midwest Farmers. "Their electricity they use would go up. The diesel fuel they use would go up. The nitrogen fertilizer they use would go up, and probably everything they buy would go up, because our manufacturing costs would increase," Blunt told KY3.

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PLUS: ROBIN CARNAHAN HASN'T TAKEN A POSITION

LAST WEEK: The Associated Press reported Carnahan declined in an interview to say whether she would have voted for the House-passed legislation, but she added that it should probably be changed by the Senate. "We need to do something to have homegrown energy that makes us so we're not so dependent on these foreign petro dictators controlling our economic destiny," Carnahan said.

"In what’s become a growing pattern, Robin Carnahan is unable – or unwilling -- to offer even basic details on her positions on key issues other than to say 'we need to do something,'" said National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Brian Walsh.