Junketeers

Public money, climate change, and a short vacation

This page was published 14 years ago. Find the latest on Earthjustice’s work.

See if you recognize any of these names: Bob Inglis, Frank Lucas, Charlie Melancon, Randy Neugebauer, Mike Ross, Adrian Smith, John Tanner. I certainly didn’t. They’re all members of Congress, all but one from the South, who took a taxpayer-funded trip in 2008  to Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica to see the effects of climate change first-hand… then returned and voted against the Waxman-Markey climate bill in the House. The trip cost, according to the account in Grist, about a half-million dollars, but who’s counting? Anything for a nice jaunt to the Antipodes, warming or otherwise. Tut, he said, tut.

Tom Turner literally wrote the books about Earthjustice during his more-than-25 years with the organization. A lifelong resident of Berkeley, CA, he is most passionate about Earthjustice's maiden issue: wilderness preservation.