Environmental

Hillary Clinton Campaign Chair on Sen. Cruz and Republicans: ‘Nothing Heroic’ About Obstructing Action on Climate Change


Podesta Criticizes Tuesday Senate Subcommittee Hearing Where Chairman Ted Cruz Will Use Taxpayer Dollars to Question Settled Climate Science

NEW YORK—(ENEWSPF)—December 8, 2015. As world leaders are gathering for the final week of talks in Paris to forge a global agreement to tackle climate change, Hillary for America Chair John Podesta criticized Republican efforts to undercut climate action, specifically Ted Cruz’s decision to use taxpayer resources to question settled science in a Senate hearing.

Just last week, Cruz was named a “hero” by the Koch Brothers-backed American Energy Alliance for his efforts in the Senate to obstruct action to tackle climate change, with Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush ranked closely behind. (Notably, Hillary Clinton was labeled a “villain.”) Now Cruz is using taxpayer dollars to dance to the Koch Brothers’ tune. On Tuesday, Cruz will chair a Senate subcommittee hearing that, according to Bloomberg, “appears aimed at casting doubt on the scientific theory that global warming is at least in part man-made.” Bloomberg also reports: “The four witnesses scheduled to appear at the hearing are all prominent climate change skeptics.”

In response, Hillary for America Chair John Podesta said:

“There is nothing heroic about blocking measures that would keep our kids and communities healthy. The Clean Power Plan will prevent as many as 150,000 asthma attacks in children and 6,700 premature deaths a year, all while meaningfully reducing carbon pollution. Actions like this demonstrate U.S. leadership in the global fight to protect our planet – and just this week, many nations are coming together to forge an international agreement on how to tackle this well-established threat.

“The science on climate change is clear. 2015 is on track to be the hottest year on record, and the United States is already feeling the impacts of climate change—including in Ted Cruz’s home state of Texas, where severe downpours and flash floods killed dozens this year alone. This is no longer a debate among serious people. Unfortunately, the Republicans would have you believe otherwise. Ted Cruz may be the latest candidate to use his office to stoke doubts about climate change, but virtually all the Republicans running for president share his commitment to denial and defeatism about America’s capacity to lead the world in confronting this challenge. After seven years of progress fighting climate change – and leading other nations to the table to agree to meaningful pollution cuts, energy reforms and real progress on protecting our planet – we can’t afford to put one of these deniers, one of these doubters, in the White House.”

Cruz may be the latest Republican to so publicly display his climate denial and defeatism – but the rest of the field seems to share his views:

  • Jeb Bush answered, “I’m a skeptic. I’m not a scientist,” when asked if he believed global warming is primarily man-made.
  • Donald Trump called climate change a “hoax.”
  • Marco Rubio, when asked whether climate change is man-made, said, “I’m not a scientist. I’m not qualified to make that decision. There’s a significant scientific dispute about that.” He also told ABC in 2014that he does “not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it.”
  • Ben Carson called the climate change debate “irrelevant.”
  • Carly Fiorina said“a single nation acting alone can make no difference at all.”
  • John Kasich urged President Obama to halt the Clean Power Plan, which is tackling climate change.
  • Rand Paul called the climate science debate “dumbed down beyond belief” and said results are “not conclusive.”

Source: www.hillaryclinton.com


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