| Congresswoman Jen Kiggans continues to face scrutiny for saying one thing in Virginia, only to turn around and betray her community in Washington.
Major new reporting from the AP details how Kiggans “portrayed herself as a champion of renewable energy” but then “voted in favor of Republican legislation to gut clean energy tax credits” – jeopardizing critical investment and good-paying jobs in Coastal Virginia.
The Southeast regional field manager for the BlueGreen Alliance slammed Kiggans’ vote, telling the AP: “Kiggans claims to prioritize jobs, lower energy costs for Virginians and reducing emissions… Yet she voted to kill jobs, skyrocket energy costs to families and increase the emissions driving climate change.”
And former Congresswoman Elaine Luria called out Kiggans’ two-faced political games, saying that “her advocacy did nothing” and that Kiggans “voted for a bill to make energy more expensive.”
Read key details from the AP for yourself:
- Trump’s broader campaign against clean energy resulted in the cancellation of nearly $35 billion in U.S. projects last year, according to a report by E2, a clean energy business group. Republican-held congressional districts lost nearly twice as much in investments than did Democratic districts, the report said.
- For now, the Virginia project is back on track, along with the other four, because of federal court rulings. But Elaine Luria, a former congresswoman who is seeking the Democratic nomination in the 2nd Congressional District represented by Kiggans, said the incumbent’s efforts have been futile in the face of Trump’s onslaught.
- “Her advocacy did nothing,” Luria said.
- Kiggans did not respond to requests for comment.
- Kiggans voted in favor of Republican legislation to gut clean energy tax credits as part of Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill even though she has long portrayed herself as a champion of renewable energy.
- Democrats have turned the issue into campaign advertisements, and Luria said it undermines Kiggans’ attempt to “sell herself as if she’s a moderate.”
- Luria said Kiggans “voted for a bill to make energy more expensive.”
- Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, said front-line Republicans have been put in a difficult position.
- “Kiggans is not the only Republican being squeezed” as Trump focuses on his own priorities and the country faces economic headwinds exacerbated by the war with Iran, he said. Although few want to risk upsetting the president, Farnsworth said, “in coastal Virginia politics, there’s not much upside to opposing wind.”
- While the wind farm is now partially online, “Kiggans nearly cost her constituents this project by standing with an administration dead set on dismantling the offshore wind industry and voting to repeal critical clean energy tax credits last year,” said Dan Taylor, Southeast regional field manager for the BlueGreen Alliance, which coordinates labor unions and environmental groups.
- “Kiggans claims to prioritize jobs, lower energy costs for Virginians and reducing emissions,” Taylor added. “Yet she voted to kill jobs, skyrocket energy costs to families and increase the emissions driving climate change.”
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