47 of 48 GOP Midterm Candidates Deny Climate Change
Republican hopefuls deny global warming
Report reveals all but one of party's 48 mid-term election candidates are skeptical about climate change
The Guardian, Sept. 14, 2010
All but one of
the 48 Republican hopefuls for the Senate mid-term elections in November
deny the existence of climate change or oppose action on global
warming, according to a report released today.
The strong
Republican front against established science includes entrenched Senate
leaders as well as the new wave of radical conservatives endorsed by the
Tea Party activists, says a report by the Center for American Progress.
As election
season gets under way, Tea Party favourites such as Joe Miller, who
caused the biggest upset of the primaries when he defeated the
Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski in Alaska last month, have been
upfront about their doubts on climate science. "We haven't heard there's
manmade global warming," Miller told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
But the challenge
to science goes beyond Tea Party favourites to corporate titans such as
Carly Fiorina, who was the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, and is
running for the Senate in California. Fiorina has said on repeated
occasions that she is "not sure" climate change is real.
Even John McCain,
the two-time presidential candidate who worked for years to get climate
change legislation through the Senate, has now cooled on the idea,
calling a recent cap-and-trade bill a "monstrosity".
Only one
Republican contender, Mike Castle of Delaware, has bucked the Republican
line against climate science. But he faces a tough battle in the
primary election from emerging favourite Christine O'Donnell, who has
said climate action would kill jobs.
The rising
opposition to science and action on climate change caps a year of
crushing defeats for environmentalists in Congress. Supporters of action
on climate change now fear that Congress could be weighted even more
against them, once the elections are over. "If they win, the number of
card-carrying members of this "Flat Earth Society" will rise
exponentially in the world's greatest deliberative body," said Gene
Karpinski, the president of the League of Conservation Voters, in an
email to reporters.
Lobbyists for the oil and gas industry have acknowledged they see the November elections as crucial to their interests.
In a conference
call with reporters, Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum
Institute, said the oil and gas lobbying organisation would take a
leading role in the elections. "We will be involved in the elections,"
he said. "We will continue our advertising efforts. We will continue to
refine our message."
As the Climate
Progress report points out, many of the Senate candidates have formally
signed on to rightwing movements such as Americans for Prosperity and
Contract from America, which explicitly reject putting a price on
carbon.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010
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