Northwest Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz Faces Fury Over EPA Elimination Bill
More than two dozen Sierra Club members and supporters turned out to confront Congressman Matt Gaetz at at his Town Hall meeting in a Pensacola, Florida, bowling alley last Thursday for drafting a bill to abolish the EPA . They were part of a boisterous, infuriated crowd of 500 squeezed in between pool tables at Oops! Bowling Alley.
Speaker after speaker asked Gaetz to withdraw his EPA elimination bill and questioned why someone who represents Pensacola and Emerald Coast beaches, some of the country's most pristine, would seek to dissolve the very agency that protects them.
Gaetz said if the EPA was abolished, its $8 billion budget would be "repatriated" to the Departments of Justice, Defense, and Agriculture triggering a chorus of boos from the audience.
"As long as I'm your member of Congress, I'm going to fight for the environment and against the EPA," he said to another deafening round of boos.
Constituents held signs that read "Protect People not Polluters," and "#SaveTheEPA." and at times chanted, "E-P-A, E-P-A, E-P-A..."
The meeting, for which Gaetz arrived half-an-hour late, was terminated by the Congressman early.
Video: https://www.facebook.com/lwvpba/videos/1337889046267386/
CNN, E&E Greenwire and local print and TV covered Gaetz's day's worth of events:
- Fla. lawmaker's assault on agency sparks fury back home
- One Republican congressman's plan to deal with town hall disrupters
- 'Open Gaetz Day' concludes on thunderous note
- Gaetz meets with protesters during Santa Rosa County town hall tour
- Two Protests, One Place: Critics Draw In NW Florida Over Congressman Matt Gaetz
- Gaetz draws cheers, jeers at town hall meeting
Photo credit: Gregg Pachkowski/gregg@pnj.com, Pensacola News-Journal