The Fossil Industry’s Good Germans – Republicans Still See No Evil on Climate Change
Like pathetic Sergeant Schultz in the classic TV series “Hogan’s Heroes”, Republicans are so terrified of the very base voter that they’ve spent 30 years disinforming through a massive anti-science media campaign, that they can no longer admit what their eyes are seeing, their ears are hearing, and what their own children are pleading with them to acknowledge.
Election year 2024 will also be perhaps the most intense El Nino year since 1998 – and it hasn’t even gotten wound up yet. Should make for some interesting campaign conversations.
It may be so hot out West that President Joe Biden recently forgot whether he had actually declared a national climate emergency (he hasn’t, officially).
But this summer’s record-breaking heat wave has nevertheless had Republicans at the Capitol deflecting and dodging all things climate change related.
“The burning of fossil fuels is the main reason the heatwaves are so severe,” the report reads.
At the Capitol, most Republicans don’t even seem to have seen the report.
As for whether humans play a role?
“I don’t know,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told Raw Story at the Capitol in July. “I don’t think anybody knows.”
The concern over the record-breaking heat wave is more an East Coast problem, according to at least one U.S. senator whose state generates significant amounts of fossil fuels.
“I think people, especially in the Rocky Mountain West, are used to the rhythms of nature, and people back here seem to dismiss the natural rhythms of nature and blame it on mankind and greenhouse gasses,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) told Raw Story before lawmakers left Washington for their August recess.
For others in the GOP, mention climate change and they go straight to one of the GOP’s new causes: protecting home appliances that emit unhealthy emissions, such as natural gas-burning stoves.
“You can get rid of all the kitchen appliances in America – you can get rid of America and you still wouldn’t be affecting the outcome,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told reporters at the Capitol in July.
In July, the nation’s capital was drippingly hot, which Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) surely noticed.
“It’s hot. Hell can’t be a lot worse, but I’m told it’s not humid in hell, but it sure is hot,” Romney told Raw Story at the end of July.
While Romney is one of only a handful of Republicans who supports global efforts to curb carbon emissions, in particular, he still won’t go so far as to say human fossil fuel use is impacting today’s record breaking temperatures.
“I don’t know whether what we’re experiencing relates to global warming, but we are having global warming and climate change, and I’d be very much in favor of actions that would make a difference in the emissions that are produced globally,” Romney said.
For their part, Democrats such as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who chairs the Budget Committee, are using their gavels to hammer home humanity’s impact on the climate.
“It’s the choke chain of the fossil fuel industry, which still is their primary financial support and we’d know even more if the fossil fuel industry wasn’t hiding behind dark money,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) tells Raw Story.
As Biden has been touting on his jaunt out West last week, when Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Democrats boasted that the nation took dramatic strides toward reducing U.S. emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030 through investing in areas such as clean energy manufacturing and tax credits for clean (or cleaner) cars.
After a group of young Montanans won a lawsuit this week directing the state to consider climate in permit policy making, elderly Republican lawmakers wasted no time attacking the next generation.
Montana Republicans responded to Monday’s ruling in a landmark climate case with statements painting the judge as an environmental “activist” and dismissing the 16 youth plaintiffs — their own constituents — as “pawns” and members of a “climate cult.”
It was a rather stunning reaction given that the case centered on a unique provision in Montana’s Constitution guaranteeing citizens the right to a “clean and healthful environment.” The plaintiffs, ages 5 to 22, argued during a seven-day trial in June that state agencies had violated this constitutional right by approving fossil fuel projects without considering climate impacts.
It was a rather stunning reaction given that the case centered on a unique provision in Montana’s Constitution guaranteeing citizens the right to a “clean and healthful environment.” The plaintiffs, ages 5 to 22, argued during a seven-day trial in June that state agencies had violated this constitutional right by approving fossil fuel projects without considering climate impacts.
Activist judges, even here in MT, are helping far-Left environmentalists push their green hallucination down the throats of Americans.
Shutting down energy projects that support an all-of-the-above energy portfolio is setting America on a dangerous path. We must reverse course. https://t.co/dGDatml9sD
