McClintock Weighs In On Syria And PG&E Power Shutoffs

Washington, DC — Congressman Tom McClintock is voicing his opinion about a pair of high-interest recent debates.

Yesterday the US Congress voted 354-60 in favor of a resolution to oppose President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from northern Syria.

McClintock, a Republican who represents the Mother Lode, was a no vote. He states, “I believe the President chose the least of very bad alternatives in ordering the withdrawal of U.S. Forces in Kurdish-held regions of Syria.  It is true that the withdrawal has caused a military vacuum which has drawn in Turkey, Russia and remnants of the Islamic State and has driven the Kurds to ally with the regime of Bashar al-Assad.   None of this is desirable, but none justifies keeping American soldiers in harm’s way without a strategy or commitment to accomplish anything other than continuing stalemate.  The Kurds and the Turks have been enemies for centuries, and there is no American interest that justifies maintaining U.S. troops in the cross-fire.”

The Congressman also weighed in on Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s planned power outages that last week resulted in over 700,000 customers losing power.

McClintock says, “I realize that PG&E is caught in a Hobson’s choice, but I do not support its decision for preventative power cut-offs due to high winds.  They are balancing the possibility of a wildfire ignition due to wind damage against the certainty of deliberately causing millions of dollars of damage to their customers and creating major public safety hazards.  I expressed this opinion directly to the CEO of PG&E.”

He added, “We need to recognize that bad public policies are contributing to a bad decision. Until the state government changes laws that currently hold utilities strictly liable for circumstances beyond their control, and until the state and federal governments change the laws that have made active public lands management all but impossible, we will continue to face these perils every windy day into the future, and that is unacceptable.”