Latta identified by the Los Angeles Times and Republicans for Environmental Protection as one of the worst legislators in America on conservation issues

Holland, Ohio – Would you want one of the “Top Ten Enemies of the Earth” representing your community in Washington? Congressional candidate Angela Zimmann doesn’t. And with the Los Angeles Times having recently bestowed that dubious distinction upon incumbent Bob Latta, Zimmann believes voters in Ohio’s Fifth District are ready for a change. Zimmann will hold a press conference at One Government Center in Toledo on Wednesday, December 28th at 10 AM, to challenge Latta’s shameful record of putting polluters’ profits ahead of children’s health.

In an editorial on December 14, 2011, the Times ranked Latta number seven on their list of the ten “most powerful and outspoken opponents of clean air, clean water, conservation and climate action.” The editorial noted that Latta “has the distinction of sponsoring the most far-reaching and destructive amendment to the most egregious anti-environment bill passed by the House this year,” referring to Latta’s proposed amendment to the TRAIN Act. The editorial notes that the TRAIN Act is “a breathtaking (literally) gift to polluters” and that Latta’s amendment “undermines a cornerstone of the Clean Air Act, requiring the EPA to take industry costs into account when setting health-based standards.” The editorial reiterates the danger of Latta’s proposal with, “This would allow corporate polluters to overrule scientists and strikes at the heart of the polluter-pays principle that has guided environmental policy for 40 years.”

“In a day and age when one in three children is being treated for asthma, it is outrageous that Bob Latta is more concerned for the profits of the big polluters that fund his campaigns than he is for the health of our children,” says Zimmann. “Bob Latta is proposing to trash a forty-year-old standard that makes polluters pay for their blatant disregard for the air we breathe.”

Latta’s abysmal record on protecting our air, land, and water has also been noted by Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP), an organization of conservation-minded conservatives whose honorary board has included such notable Republicans as Senator John McCain, the late Barry Goldwater, and Theodore Roosevelt IV. In July 2011, REP released their Congressional Scorecard for 2010, giving Latta a score of 12 out of 100 as well as assigning him a “demerit.”

“People of all faiths understand that we are called to be stewards of our resources,” says Zimmann, an ordained Lutheran minister. “When we substitute special interest politics for sound conservation policy, we put the health of our children in jeopardy and spoil the earth for future generations.”

Dr. Angela Zimmann, 38, is an ordained Lutheran minister and full-time faculty member teaching in the General Studies Writing Program at Bowling Green State University. An elected board member and past president of the Lucas County Educational Service Center, Dr. Zimmann currently serves as president of the Northwest Region of the Ohio School Boards Association. Valedictorian of the 1990 Springfield High School graduating class, she received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Toledo and graduated from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg before earning her Ph.D. in rhetoric and composition from Bowling Green State University. She lives in Holland, Ohio with her husband, Dr. Martin Zimmann, and their children and foster children.

Links

• Read the Los Angeles Times Editorial
• Republicans for Environmental Protection’s Congressional Scorecard
• Summary of Latta’s Amendment to the Train Act