{"id":798846,"date":"2021-09-21T14:44:09","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T18:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=798846"},"modified":"2021-09-21T14:44:12","modified_gmt":"2021-09-21T18:44:12","slug":"dem-candidate-who-called-climate-crisis-an-existential-threat-represented-oil-company-after-major-spill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-candidate-who-called-climate-crisis-an-existential-threat-represented-oil-company-after-major-spill\/","title":{"rendered":"Dem Candidate Who Called \u2018Climate Crisis\u2019 An \u2018Existential Threat\u2019 Represented Oil Company After Major Spill"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdem-candidate-who-called-climate-crisis-an-existential-threat-represented-oil-company-after-major-spill%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=798846&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>Matthew Putorti, a Democrat challenging Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, has repeatedly expressed concern about climate change, but previously worked for an oil company attempting to recoup losses after a major spill.<\/p>\n<p>As a lawyer at the New York City-based law firm Anderson Kill, Putorti appeared in court in 2013 on behalf of United Refining Co., a Pennsylvania-based oil company. Putorti and United requested that a federal judge order insurance companies to pay United $20.5 million in the wake of the 2010 Enbridge oil spill. A rupture in the Enbridge pipeline near Marshall, Michigan, released more than one million <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/enbridge-spill-michigan\">gallons<\/a> into the Kalamazoo River. It was the second-largest inland oil spill in U.S. history.<\/p>\n<p>Cleaning up the spill <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlive.com\/news\/grand-rapids\/2014\/11\/2010_oil_spill_cost_enbridge_1.html\">cost<\/a> Enbridge more than $1.2 billion. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freep.com\/story\/news\/local\/michigan\/2016\/07\/20\/enbridge-reaches-177m-settlement-oil-spills\/87336380\/\">fined<\/a> the Canadian energy giant another $177 million for violations of the Clean Water Act.<\/p>\n<p>United contracted with Enbridge to transport crude oil to its refineries in western Pennsylvania and <a href=\"https:\/\/casetext.com\/case\/united-ref-co-v-natl-union-fire-ins-co-of-pittsburgh\">claimed<\/a> to lose up to $32 million due to the spill and accompanying shut down of the Enbridge pipeline. United then sued five insurance companies in federal court, claiming that the companies violated their contracts by not paying out United\u2019s claims. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, sending the two parties to arbitration.<\/p>\n<p>Putorti\u2019s representation of United stands in sharp contrast to his campaign rhetoric on climate change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDealing with the climate crisis at large\u201d is one of the most important issues for Putorti, he <a href=\"https:\/\/upolitics.com\/videos\/video-exclusive-matt-putorti-on-his-campaign-to-defeat-gop-rep-elise-stefanik\/\">told<\/a> uPolitics in a Monday interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do think protecting our democracy and protecting our environment, and the climate crisis, are both such existential threats, that those are the things that most urgently demand our attention,\u201d Putorti continued. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t do that in conjunction with things like making sure that people have good jobs. So for example, in this district, which I said, it\u2019s a very environmentally-conscious district, and it\u2019s post-industrial, there\u2019s great opportunity for those green jobs to be done here. And so you are combating two things at once, which I think we need to be able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" readability=\"9.8022922636103\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">This summer has been one of the hottest on record. The time for serious action to tackle climate change was long ago. Investing in clean energy solutions &amp; protecting our natural environment will create good paying jobs for people in the North Country &amp; drive economic tourism. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HYi2lA078B\">https:\/\/t.co\/HYi2lA078B<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Matt Putorti (@MattPutorti) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MattPutorti\/status\/1427628723654758401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 17, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Putorti <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wwnytv.com\/2021\/06\/14\/1st-democrat-emerges-challenge-stefanik-congress\/\">declared<\/a> his congressional candidacy in June and is one of three candidates running to unseat Stefanik. He most recently worked as an attorney at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, where he <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/elections\/stefanik-challenger-china-daily\/\">represented<\/a> the state-run media outlet China Daily. Putorti also filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act due to \u201clegal, communications and public affairs\u201d work he did for the Embassy of Qatar. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/18\/matthew-putorti-fara-pete-buttigieg-beto-orourke-elise-stefanik\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Stefanik Challenger Once Registered As A Foreign Agent For \u2018Embassy Of Qatar\u2019)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Putorti did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Daily Caller.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew Putorti, a Democrat challenging Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, has repeatedly expressed concern about climate change, but previously worked for an oil company attempting to recoup losses after &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-798846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}