by Brad Johnson, ThinkProgress Wonk Room Climate Editor
Updated 11/23 with elections of Ann Buerkle and Blake Fahrenthold.
One year ago, the right-wing media machine smeared climate scientists with the “Climategate [2]” conspiracy theory, even as the climate itself continued to get hotter and more destructive. Although the National Academies of Science says “the U.S. should act now [3] to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop a national strategy to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change,” the Republican Party is now dominated by fossil-funded ideologues who repeat zombie myths about global warming. An exclusive survey by the Wonk Room, with research support [4] by Daily Kos blogger RL Miller [5], has identified the members of Congress from nearly every state in the union that are on record challenging the scientific consensus.
In January, 2011, the 112th Congress will open session, with a huge contingent of Republicans who have explicitly rejected the threat of manmade global warming pollution. These climate zombies express the classic variants of global warming denial: that it is not warming [6], that cold weather [7] refutes concerns about global warming, that man’s influence is unclear [8], that climate scientists are engaged in a hoax [9], scam [10], or corrupt conspiracy [11], and that limiting greenhouse pollution would have no impact [12] on global temperatures. Of special note are the conspiracy theorists who argue that hacked emails from climate scientists prove corruption, calling for kangaroo trials against practicing researchers.
Well over half (56 percent) of the incoming Republican caucus are climate zombies. Thirty-five of the 47 (74 percent) Republicans in the U.S. Senate next year publicly question the science of global warming. Of the 242 Republicans elected to the House of Representatives, 128 (53 percent) publicly question the science.
Of the freshmen Republicans — marked in boldface below — 38 of 87 in the House and 11 of 13 in the Senate have publicly questioned the science. Eighty of the freshmen signed the Koch Industries/Americans For Prosperity “No Climate Tax” pledge, and 46 freshmen signed the FreedomWorks-Tea Party Contract From America, which rejects cap and trade. Of the 100 freshmen, 94 have either explicitly denied global warming, signed the Koch pledge, or signed the FreedomWorks pledge. There are no freshmen Republicans, in the House or Senate, who publicly accept the scientific consensus that greenhouse pollution is an immediate threat.
SENATE
| Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) [13] John Barrasso (R-WY) [14] Roy Blunt (R-MO) [15] John Boozman (R-AR) [16] Scott Brown (R-MA) [17] Dan Coats (R-IN) [18] Tom Coburn (R-OK) [19] Bob Corker (R-TN) [20] John Cornyn (R-TX) [21] Mike Crapo (R-ID) [22] Jim DeMint (R-SC) [7] John Ensign (R-NV) [23] |
Mike Enzi (R-WY) [24] Chuck Grassley (R-IA) [25] Orrin Hatch (R-UT) [26] John Hoeven (R-ND) [27] Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) [28] Jim Inhofe (R-OK) [29] Johnny Isakson (R-GA) [30] Mike Johanns (R-NE) [31] Ron Johnson (R-WI) [32] John McCain (R-AZ) [33] Mitch McConnell (R-KY) [34] Jerry Moran (R-KS) [35] |
Rand Paul (R-KY) [36] Rob Portman (R-OH) [37] Jim Risch (R-ID) [38] Pat Roberts (R-KS) [39] Marco Rubio (R-FL) [40] Jeff Sessions (R-AL) [41] Richard Shelby (R-AL) [42] John Thune (R-SD) [43] Pat Toomey (R-PA) [44] David Vitter (R-LA) [45] Roger Wicker (R-MS) [46] |
HOUSE
ALABAMA
Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL-04): I fall into the second group of people who believe, as do many very credible scientists, that the earth is currently in a natural warming cycle rather than a man-made climate change. Many scientists believe that natural cycles of warming and cooling have existed since the beginning of Earth. If we take the current models of climate prediction and apply those same models to what actually happened in the last thirty years, the models are shown to be very flawed. In addition, what knowledge we do have of a warming period in the Middle Ages cannot be explained by current models which are focused on greenhouse gas reductions. [source [169]]
Rep.-elect Mo Brooks (R-AL-05): I am unconvinced about America’s ability to do anything about Global Warming (assuming Global Warming is man-made and not a recurrent global weather pattern). Yesterday I met with Dr. John Christy at UAH. He’s one sharp scientist who shares my skepticism. [source [170]]
Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL-06): Whereas recent events have uncovered extensive evidence from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England (in this resolution referred to as the ‘CRU’) which involved many researchers across the globe discussing the destruction, altering, and hiding of data that did not support global warming claims. [source [171]]
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL): Global warming continues to be an issue of significant debate in Congress and throughout the scientific community. In addition, important scientific research is ongoing as there are still many questions that must be answered before we take steps to address this issue. For example, is the climate change phenomenon cyclical or is it a function of manmade pollutants, or both? I believe the science must be firmly grounded before we take any actions that could seriously cripple many sectors of our economy. [source [172]]
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL): Our conceit is such that we think we can manage the climate, we think we can manage a huge portion of the most dynamic economy the world’s ever known, and I’m wary of it. [source [173]]
ALASKA
Rep. Don Young (R-AK-AL): Global warming is the “biggest scam since the Teapot Dome.” [source [174]]
ARIZONA
Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ-02): I have yet to see clear and convincing evidence that it exists beyond historical fluctuations. [source [175]]
Rep.-elect Ben Quayle (R-AZ-03): Our planet has warmed and cooled since the beginning of time. [source [176]]
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ-06): Told townhall participants that he was a skeptic on manmade global warming. [source [177]]
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ): There are dramatic environmental changes happening in the arctic region – whether one believes they are man-made or natural. [source [178]]
ARKANSAS
Sen.-elect John Boozman (R-AR): Well I think that we’ve got perhaps climate change going on. The question is what’s causing it. Is man causing it, or, you know, is this a cycle that happens throughout the years, throughout the ages. And you can look back some of the previous times when there was no industrialization, you had these different ages, ice ages, and things warming and things. That’s the question. [source [179]]
CALIFORNIA
Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA-02): In the 1970s we were concerned with “global cooling” and were warned of an impending ice age. Thirty years later I do not believe that the science regarding climate change is so substantiated as to warrant the EPA’s proposed regulation of GHGs – including carbon dioxide, which every human being emits with every breath – in order to address climate change. [source [180]]
Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA-03): It is somewhat ironic that in the June 24, 1974 issue of Time magazine an article appeared which featured a story about an impending ice age. This obviously did not materialize and within 25 years we were confronted with dire predictions relating to a global catastrophe associated with global warming. The discourse now appears to be shifting to the more generalized terminology of “climate change.” It is my view that sound science rather than ideological bias should direct our consideration of this issue. Without waiting for proof or disproof of global warming, it is prudent for us to take action to minimize CO2 emissions. [source [181]]
Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA-04): McClintock denies that climate change is man made. He believes that the science behind climate change is “unsettled” and thus we do not have to act to reduce carbon emissions. [source [182]]
Rep.-elect Jeff Denham (R-CA-19): Some wouldn’t view them as skeptics. Some would view them as the right side of the issue. We don’t have complete factual information yet. From what I have seen the Earth has heated and cooled on its own for centuries. I don’t know that there’s anything that is a direct cause of that right now, but we can do a better job of cleaning up our planet. [source [183]]
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA-21): However, scientists admit that they cannot be sure whether the Earth’s temperature is rising due to cyclical warming and cooling processes, or whether and how much humans are influencing it. [source [184]]
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA-41): It’s amazing how little we know about the science of our environment and a thing called climate change. Before we automatically throw money into this subject matter we ought to know what we’re talking about. Global warming is apparently a problem, but global cooling can be as well. [source [185]]
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA-44): Regardless of your point of view on global warming, we should all be able to agree with the fact that one state shouldn’t shoulder the economic burden of a problem that, as its name suggests, is global in nature. [source [186]]
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA-46): Too often, when congress is asked to pass environmental legislation, the legislation is based on emotional junk science rather than data based on reproducable, rigorous, tested, peer-reviewed results. In no area has this been more obvious than climate change. Because the Kyoto Treaty and much of the suggested environmental legislation would decimate jobs in southern California, constituents may be interested to learn of the growing scientific consensus that global warming is not manmade, if it is in fact even occuring. [source [187]]
Rep. John Campbell (R-CA-48): Global warming has become a religion for many back here in Washington. To this crowd, there are no greater or more urgent problems anywhere. They worship at the alter [sic] of carbon generation and reduction. [source [188]]
Rep. Darryl Issa (R-CA-49): One of the difficulties in examining the issue of the climate change and greenhouse gases is that there is a wide range of scientific opinion on this issue and the science community does not agree to the extent of the problem or the critical threshold of when this problem is truly catastrophic. [source [189]]
Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA-50): Whereas recent events have uncovered extensive evidence from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England (in this resolution referred to as the ‘CRU’) which involved many researchers across the globe discussing the destruction, altering, and hiding of data that did not support global warming claims. [source [171]]
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA-52): Hunter ridiculed the notion that climate change needs to be addressed by Congress. “Nobody really knows the cause,” he said. “The earth cools, the earth warms…It could be caused by carbon dioxide or methane. Maybe we should kill the cows to stop the methane, or stop breathing to stop the CO2…Thousands of people die every year of cold, so if we had global warming it would save lives…We ought to look out for people. The earth can take care of itself.” [source [190]]
COLORADO
Rep.-elect Cory Gardner (R-CO-04): I think the climate is changing, but I don’t believe humans are causing that change to the extent that’s been in the news. [source [191]]
FLORIDA
Rep.-elect Steve Southerland (R-FL-02): I oppose the Cap & Trade bill that the U.S. House passed because it has nothing to do with energy policy and everything to do with raising our energy costs, killing jobs, increasing debt and transferring American’s sovereignty. [source [192]]
Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL-06): Madam Speaker, the fact that so many experts were wrong about global cooling in the seventies does not necessarily mean that they are wrong about global warming today, but it does at least show that experts are sometimes incredibly, incredibly wrong. [source [193]]
Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL-15): Whereas recent events have uncovered extensive evidence from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England (in this resolution referred to as the ‘CRU’) which involved many researchers across the globe discussing the destruction, altering, and hiding of data that did not support global warming claims. [source [171]]
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL-21): Whereas recent events have uncovered extensive evidence from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England (in this resolution referred to as the ‘CRU’) which involved many researchers across the globe discussing the destruction, altering, and hiding of data that did not support global warming claims. [source [171]]
Rep.-elect Allen West (R-FL-22): If we could just get President Obama and former Vice-President Al Gore to apologize to God reference “man-made global warming/climate change” perhaps we would not all be freezing, even in South Florida! [source [194]]
Sen.-elect Marco Rubio (R-FL): “I don’t think there’s the scientific evidence to justify it,” Rubio said. Asked whether he accepts the scientific evidence that the global climate is undergoing change, he responded, “The climate is always changing. The climate is never static.” [source [195]]
GEORGIA
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA-01): We have a moral duty to be good stewards of the environment but growing the government’s coffers and killing jobs based on questionable science is a bridge too far. [source [196]]
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA-03): Westmoreland, who isn’t convinced that global warming is occurring, denied that he was trying to divert attention from Gore’s testimony. [source [197]]
Rep. Tom Price (R-GA-06): The EPA’s unilateral decision to regulate carbon dioxide would impose a de facto national energy tax on every sector of the economy and push our struggling job-creators off a cliff. This decision goes against all common sense, especially considering the many recent revelations of errors and obfuscation in the allegedly ‘settled science’ of global warming. [source [198]]
Rep.-elect Rob Woodall (R-GA-07): President Obama just doesn’t get it. First he focused on energy taxes and “global warming.” [source [199]]
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA-10): the declaration by Representative Paul Broun of Georgia that climate change is nothing but a “hoax” that has been “perpetrated out of the scientific community.” [source [200]]
Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA-11): Climategate reveals a serious lack of integrity in the underlying data and models, such that it is doubtful that any process can be trusted until the data and models are validated and their integrity assured [source [201]]
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA): In the emails that have been disclosed we’ve seen evidence of manipulation, efforts to avoid freedom of information act requests, abuse of the peer review process and a research process that is driven more by a political agcnda than a quest for the truth. [source [202]]
IDAHO
Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID): While there is no dispute over the fact that the Earth’s climate has changed many times over the planet’s history, the underlying cause of these climactic shifts is ultimately not well-understood and is a matter of vigorous debate. [source [203]]
Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID): The EPA rule is nothing more than another power grab by a federal agency and an erosion of the Constitution of this great country. It would lead to a massive tax on every aspect of American life from the ringing alarm clock in the morning to the last light switch turned off at night and it would be levied by bureaucrats who are not held accountable to the voice of the people. The merits of global warming and how to address it should be debated in the legislative bodies of Congress, not decided by an unelected bureaucratic agency of the federal government. [source [204]]
ILLINOIS
Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL-06): Roskam drew the ire of the crowd by calling global warming junk science. [source [205]]
Rep.-elect Joe Walsh (R-IL-08): The science on climate change is far from settled. [source [206]]
Rep.-elect Robert Dold (R-IL-10): While the science has been put in question, we don’t know the man-made impacts. [source [207]]
Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL-13): “The science behind climate change is sound” yet co-sponsored H. Res. 954 (“Whereas recent events have uncovered extensive evidence from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England (in this resolution referred to as the ‘CRU’) which involved many researchers across the globe discussing the destruction, altering, and hiding of data that did not support global warming claims.”) [source [171]]
Rep.-elect Randy Hultgren (R-IL-14): The greatest impact on our climate clearly is the sun, and we have very little impact on the sun and how much energy and temperature the sun is sending to the earth. We have seen clearly over thousands of years that at different times more energy has come through and different times less energy has come through, and that variation has impacted climate change. Over the thousands of years that’s been recorded we’ve had both colder times and warmer times. It happens to be that we’ve recently come out of a warmer time and now actually we’re headed in to a little bit of a colder time, the impact of the sun is much different than impact that we could have had. [source [208]]
Rep. Don Manzullo (R-IL-16): But Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.) failed in his effort to amend the Lantos bill to put the emphasis not just on global warming. Arguing there is too much controversy surrounding climate change, Manzullo said his substitute would drive the United States to forge international consensus on a host of environmental items, including water pollution, biodiversity and food contamination. [source [209]]
Rep.-elect Bobby Schilling (R-IL-17): He doesn’t believe in global warming, putting him at odds with almost every major climate change expert in the world but in good standing with his base. [source [210]]
Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL-19): Climate change is not a threat because God has already said in the Bible that ”the Earth will not be destroyed by a flood.” [source [211]]
INDIANA
Rep.-elect Todd Rokita (R-IN-04): The link between manmade carbon emissions and measureable harm to the environment is a topic currently under debate. While there may exist a link, the current debate continues. Recent discoveries of manipulated temperature data as well as the February 26, 2010 United Nations announcement that it will revisit the climate change data and data gathering techniques, indicates sufficient unknown factors exist so as to preclude the creation of harmful economic policies. [source [212]]
Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN-05): It is imperative that Congress investigate and conduct public hearings on the climate research scandal that has emerged from the University of East Anglia – a situation commonly referred to as Climategate. Congress and the American people deserve to have a better understanding of this controversial situation before the President proclaims our taxpayers and government committed to any sort of carbon cap-and-tax plan based on an undermined science. [source [213]]
Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN-06): In the worst recession in 26 years, in the midst of an academic scandal and questionable science revealed in ‘Climategate’ and in the absence of a national consensus about policies that would bear upon the category known as climate change, we gather here to say, Mr. President, don’t make promises in Copenhagen that we cant keep,” said House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana. [source [214]]
Rep.-elect Larry Bucshon (R-IN-08): The data does not support the premise that carbon dioxide emissions are playing a significant role in the world temperature variations. The temperature of the Earth has been changing over centuries with warmer and colder periods throughout history. [source [215]]
Rep.-elect Todd Young (R-IN-09): With the possible exception of Tiger Woods, nothing has had a worse year than global warming. We have discovered that a good portion of the science used to justify “climate change” was a hoax perpetrated by leftist ideologues with an agenda. [source [216]]
Sen.-elect Dan Coats (R-IN): Former U.S. Sen. Dan Coats discussed this year’s snowstorm in Washington, D.C., ignoring scientists who say global warming causes intensified weather consistent with such a snowstorm. [source [217]]
IOWA
Rep. Steve King (R-IA-05): Every civilization, according to this Professor Brown, has not only always paid attention to the weather. Every civilization has tried to affect and change the weather. So whether it’s the Chinese seeding clouds, whether it’s some of the industrialized nations in the world trying to get together for cap-and-trade to try to reduce the CO2 emissions. You know, this might be the modern version of the rain dance.[...] It’s not rational, it’s a religion that we’re up against. [source [218]]
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA): But the scientific aspect that I still reserving judgment on is the extent to which it’s manmade or natural. And it’s reasonable, considering that there’s at least a natural factor in it, because historically, and you can go to the core drillings in the glaciers to get proof of this, that we’ve had decades and decades, and maybe even centuries of periods of time when there’s been a tremendous rise in temperature, and then a tremendous fall in temperature. And all you’ve got to do is look at the little ice age of the mid-last millennia as an example. And so we’ve got to single out what’s natural and what’s manmade before you can make policy. [source [219]]
KANSAS
Rep.-elect Tim Huelskamp (R-KS-01): Authored state SR 1809, the resolution condemning the controversial recent EPA “endangerment finding” that greenhouse gasses (including methane and carbon dioxide) are “harmful pollutants.” [source [220]]
Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS-02): I cosponsored a res. overturning an EPA rule that says man-made greenhouse gas emissions are a danger to public health. [source [221]]
Sen.-elect Jerry Moran (R-KS): Who do you believe? There are so many sources of information. Who is representing which political agenda? What scientist is telling the truth? When it comes to environmental regulations, we want sound science and common sense. [source [222]]
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS): There’s no question there’s some global warming, but I’m not sure what it means. A lot of this is condescending elitism. [source [223]]
KENTUCKY
Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY-01): Misrepresenting scientific research to support one’s own personal beliefs, particularly on an international stage, is dangerous, disingenuous and simply unacceptable. I call on Mr. Gore to come clean about the real science surrounding climate change and let the American people come to their own conclusions on global warming. [source [224]]
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY): During the record snowstorm in Washington DC, he asked, “Where’s Al Gore now?” [source [225]]
Sen.-elect Rand Paul (R-KY): [Scientists] are making up their facts to fit their conclusions. They’ve already caught them doing this. [source [226]]
LOUISIANA
Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA-01): Asked whether he worries that he could be wrong, Scalise cited an “increasing number of scientists who are raising major questions about the global warming theories.” [source [227]]
Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-LA-05): Introduced H Res 974 declaring that “impacts of climate change and proposed resolutions, tainted by the recent uncovering of climategate, are not universally accepted….” [source [228]]
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA): I do not think the science clearly supports global warming theory. [source [229]]
MARYLAND
Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD-06): Although Bartlett wants to “to slow, stop, and eventually reverse the growth of greenhouse gases [230],” he co-sponsored H. Res. 954: “Whereas recent events have uncovered extensive evidence from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England (in this resolution referred to as the ‘CRU’) which involved many researchers across the globe discussing the destruction, altering, and hiding of data that did not support global warming claims.” [source [171]]
MASSACHUSETTS
Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA): It’s interesting. I think the globe is always heating and cooling. It’s a natural way of ebb and flow. The thing that concerns me lately is some of the information I’ve heard about potential tampering with some of the information. I just want to make sure if in fact . . . the earth is heating up, that we have accurate information, and it’s unbiased by scientists with no agenda. Once that’s done, then I think we can really move forward with a good plan. [source [231]]
MICHIGAN
Rep.-elect Bill Huizenga (R-MI-02): Today’s global warming doomsayers simply lack the scientific evidence to support their claims. A host of leaders in the scientific community have recognized that the argument for drastic anthropogenic global warming is no longer based on science, but is being driven by irrational fanaticism. [source [232]]
Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI-04): What is the science of climate change? What can it definitively tell us? Can it say who is responsible for it? Can it tell us what impact we can have on it, and if we can, what are the results—both positive and negative? From what I have read, there remains a great deal of uncertainty with regard to the scientific evidence about climate change. [source [233]]
Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI-06): Are any of those incurred costs actually going to impact the rising temperature under debate? The answer was no. No matter what we did between now and 2050 it, it, there was no real science to verify that it would reduce the temperature rise that some predicted. And that’s why we do need hearings [on the Climategate emails]. [source [234]]
Rep.-elect Tim Walberg (R-MI-07): I read scientists, editors…an equal number at the very least that say just the opposite that this is something that’s gone on for eons, that we go through these cycles. [source [235]]
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI-08): Now, the disturbing disclosure that climate-science researchers may have altered temperature data to justify their desired results creates a new set of concerns about this job-killing legislation. Our committee has a responsibility to fully investigate these alarming reports of altered data and to determine if the results are completely accurate and based on true science. [source [236]]
Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI-10): There is little doubt that the world’s climate is changing, because the climate has always changed. Just ask the dinosaurs or remember the ice age and how huge glaciers melting and moving formed our Great Lakes. The question is whether the current climate change is human-induced. [source [237]]
Rep. Thad McCotter (R-MI-11): Remember, the people who talk about the melting of the glaciers and others — imagine if you were in a peninsula around 1,000 B.C. or so or earlier, and your name was Thor and you were out hunting mastodon. And you didn’t notice that the glaciers were melting and leaving the devastating flooding in its wake that became the Great Lakes in the state of Michigan. So what I think that what we have to do is go back in history and look at this and realize that the Earth has been here a long time. To take selective periods of time and say that somehow this proves that there’s a manmade global warming occurring is absolutely wrong. [source [238]]
MINNESOTA
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN-06): Carbon dioxide, Mister Speaker, is a natural byproduct of nature. Carbon dioxide is natural. It occurs in Earth. It is a part of the regular lifecycle of Earth. In fact, life on planet Earth can’t even exist without carbon dioxide. So necessary is it to human life, to animal life, to plant life, to the oceans, to the vegetation that’s on the Earth, to the, to the fowl that — that flies in the air, we need to have carbon dioxide as part of the fundamental lifecycle of Earth. [source [239]]
Rep.-elect Chip Cravaack (R-MN-08): On October 20th, 2009, the scandal now known as Climategate broke into international scrutiny. Essentially, the scandal marked a milestone in the decline of Anthropogenic Global Warming theology. Science long suspected of being loosely tethered to reality is now known to have been corrupt as well. [source [240]]
MISSISSIPPI
Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS-03): I’ve joined Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and the House Republican leadership in co-sponsoring H.R. 391, which excludes carbon dioxide from the definition of the term ‘air pollutant’ in the Clean Air Act. Passing this bill is essential to halting the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate carbon dioxide. [source [241]]
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS): The emails and documents recently disclosed paint an alarming picture of the state of climate research. In the emails that have been disclosed we’ve seen evidence of manipulation, efforts to avoid freedom of information act requests, abuse of the peer review process and a research process that is driven more by a political agenda than a quest for the truth. [source [242]]
MISSOURI
Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO-02): I mean, we just went from winter to spring. In Missouri when we go from winter to spring, that’s a good climate change. I don’t want to stop that climate change you know. Who in the world want to put politicians in charge of the weather anyways? [source [243]]
Rep.-elect Vicky Hartzler (R-MO-04): Enjoying another beautiful global warming day in Missouri! Rep. Skelton and the UN Summit need to quit their dist. of wealth for a hoax. [source [244]]
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO-08): Conservatives first brought a lawsuit over the National Assessment in late 2000, not long before Bill Clinton left office. Filed by the CEI with Inhofe as a co-plaintiff, the suit alleged various procedural deficiencies in the report’s preparation. It then stunningly demanded a block on the report’s production or utilization — in other words, a court’s withholding of scientific information. Co-plaintiff Jo Ann Emerson, a Republican representative from Missouri, charged, “The administration is rushing to release a junk science report in violation of current law to try to lend support to its flawed Kyoto Protocol negotiations.” [source [245]]
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO-09): Luetkemeyer’s legislation would prohibit U.S. contributions to the IPCC, which is nothing more than a group of U.N. bureaucrats that supports man-made claims on global warming that many scientists disagree with…. Meanwhile, our very own Environmental Protection Agency recently reported that we are undergoing a period of worldwide cooling. [source [246]]
Sen.-elect Roy Blunt (R-MO): Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told HUMAN EVENTS Editor Jed Babbin that Republicans accept that the climate is changing, but added, “There isn’t any real science to say we are altering the climate path of the earth.” [source [247]]
MONTANA
Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT-AL): What House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the architect of cap and tax, didn’t explain was that even if cap and tax does exactly what it’s meant to do, it still would only reduce greenhouse gas emissions by less than a thousandth of a percent. [source [248]]
NEBRASKA
Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE-02): There’s a vigorous debate about the anthropologic [sic] impact on our climate. [source [249]]
Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE): There is a significant debate as to what role man plays in warming of the climate. [source [250]]
NEVADA
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV): The emails and documents recently disclosed paint an alarming picture of the state of climate research. In the emails that have been disclosed we’ve seen evidence of manipulation, efforts to avoid freedom of information act requests, abuse of the peer review process and a research process that is driven more by a political agenda than a quest for the truth. [source [242]]
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Rep.-elect Charlie Bass (R-NH-02): The overwhelming scientific evidence points to the existence of global climate change. A debate continues about the sources of this climate change, and it should continue within the scientific community. I support common sense policies that will seek to reduce emissions that, at least in part, can be linked to climate change. [source [251]]
Sen.-elect Kelly Ayotte (R-NH): Asked if she believed in climate change, she said, “there is scientific evidence that demonstrates there is some impact from human activities. However I don’t think the evidence is conclusive.” [source [252]]
NEW JERSEY
Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ-05): The real question that still exists in a lot of people’s minds, experts and non-experts alike, on the area of global warming and what role the government should have in this realm. … I’ve heard a number of experts on both sides of the equation on this issue and to me the evidence, the question is still out there. [source [253]]
Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ-07): The disclosure of emails from the CRU is very troubling and merits a thorough and transparent investigation. Clearly there is a strong appearance that important scientific research may have been tainted by politics. [source [254]]
NEW MEXICO
Rep.-elect Steve Pearce (R-NM-02): For the political purposes of your question, do I feel that humans are having a huge impact on global temperatures that require a panicked flight from the energy that feeds, fuels and provides shelter for our society, no. [source [255]]
NEW YORK
Rep.-elect Mike Grimm (R-NY-13): I have been one of the guys who have been skeptical of global warming from the beginning. The jury is obviously still out on it. We see nothing but conflicting reports from across the globe. I’m not sure, I’m not a scientist. [source [256]]
Rep.-elect Nan Hayworth (R-NY-19): Recent controversies regarding the scientific evidence of global warming indicate that we must regard any claims with skepticism, which is what true scientists are supposed to do. [source [257]]
Rep.-elect Ann Buerkle (R-NY-25): The jury is still out on global warming. [source [258]]
NORTH CAROLINA
Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10): So I fail to see the wisdom in eliminating 88,000 jobs in North Carolina alone, raising energy prices by $1,400 annually on every household, and hiking gasoline prices by 77 cents per gallon. For what? So we can possibly lower the earth’s temperature by two-tenths of a degree by the end of the century. [source [259]]
NORTH DAKOTA
Sen.-elect John Hoeven (R-ND): Well, the science shows that there’s warming. There’s different opinions of exactly what’s causing it. [source [260]]
OHIO
Rep.-elect Steve Chabot (R-OH-01): Climategate is “just another example of many in the press, and many in the academic/scientific community having bought into the whole global warming/climate change ‘religion,’ no matter what the facts are.” [source [261]]
Rep. John Boehner (R-OH-08): George, the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you’ve got more carbon dioxide. [source [262]]
Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH-12): GOP Rep. Pat Tiberi of Genoa Township doesn’t think there is a consensus among scientists about whether global warming is proven. [source [263]]
Rep.-elect Steve Stivers (R-OH-15): Disagrees with the statement: “Man-made global warming is a scientific fact.” [source [264]]
Rep.-elect Bob Gibbs (R-OH-18): With the recent reports that the data used regarding climate change that data was based on faulty, biased and unsubstantiated science , it is clear that . Many scientists are on both sides of this issue and the proponents of climate change have not substantiated their findings based on sound science. [source [265]]
Sen.-elect Rob Portman (R-OH): When you analyze all the data, there is a warming trend according to science. But the jury is out on the degree of how much is manmade. [source [266]]
OKLAHOMA
Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK-01): Right now, too, they’re basing it on data that’s fraudulent. There is a culture of corruption going through the scientific communitiy that’s not being addressed right now, and it should be. [source [267]]
Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK-04): Furthermore, this unnecessary move [climate change regulation] would decrease America’s competitiveness in international markets. [source [268]]
Rep.-elect James Lankford (R-OK-05): This whole global warming myth will be exposed as what it really is — a way of control more than anything else. And that generation will be ticked. [source [269]]
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK): I am not the smartest man in the world, but I have been trained to read scientific documents, and [anthropogenic climate change] is malarkey. [source [270]]
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK): I called the threat of catastrophic global warming the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” a statement that, to put it mildly, was not viewed kindly by environmental extremists and their elitist organizations. [source [271]]
OREGON
Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR-02): Republican Congressmen Barton and Greg Walden of Oregon have asked the Obama administration for a full accounting of any role the Departments of Energy and Commerce may have played in funding, in handling of Freedom of Information Act requests and in data sharing involving the University of East Anglia climate scientists. In a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the two congressmen wrote, “We note that employees and researchers supported by the Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration and/or Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory figure prominently in the emails, especially LLNL scientist Dr. Benjamin Santer and DOE-funded scientist Dr. Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia, who appears to be at the center of the email collection.” [source [272]]
PENNSYLVANIA
Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA-05): In the debate and most of the debate of the majority party here, it’s not so much based on real science as political science or even, to some degree, science fiction. And so, to look at why this–and I looked at every piece of legislation in terms of cost benefits. And when we look at the benefits of this, I think human activity, it’s acknowledged, does contribute towards carbon dioxide emissions. But it’s less than 4 percent. To put that into perspective, forest fires, wildfires contribute 10 percent of CO2 emissions. And so not even with the debate of, you know, are we warming the Earth or not warming the Earth, there’s a lot of smart folks out there that are publishing research or earning their dissertations based on debating that science. But what the experts agree upon, the researchers agree is, human activity is less than 4 percent contributes towards CO2 emissions. [source [273]]
Rep. Jim Gerlach (R-PA-06): “Congressman Gerlach believes we have a responsibility as legislators and citizens to reduce our imprint on the Earth and reverse the effects of science-based climate change for both current and future generations. He also believes we must do this in a manner that successfully balances long-term environmental goals with the needs of America’s economy.” yet “Whereas recent events have uncovered extensive evidence from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England (in this resolution referred to as the ‘CRU’) which involved many researchers across the globe discussing the destruction, altering, and hiding of data that did not support global warming claims.” [source [171]]
Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA-09): Today, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA) offered a new reason not to take action on global warming: it’s cold in Copenhagen, where the UN Climate Change Conference is currently taking place. [source [274]]
Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA-15): I am concerned that world leaders and scientists are gathering in Copenhagen this week to potentially develop global climate treaties at a time when the international community is questioning the legitimacy of leading climate scientists. Unfortunately, the revelation of these deceitful emails has tarnished the credibility of significant scientific research. [source [275]]
Sen.-elect Pat Toomey (R-PA): My view is: I think the data is pretty clear. There has been an increase in the surface temperature of the planet over the course of the last 100 years or so. I think it’s clear that that has happened. The extent to which that has been caused by human activity I think is not as clear. I think that is still very much disputed and has been debated. [source [276]]
SOUTH CAROLINA
Rep.-elect Trey Gowdy (R-SC-04): Global warming has not been proven to the satisfaction of the constituents I seek to serve. [source [277]]
Rep.-elect Mick Mulvaney (R-SC-05): Energy independence, green technology, and innovation is something we should pursue as a nation. However, we shouldn’t seek to accomplish that by taxing people based on questionable science. Neither should we ignore domestic energy resources – coal, natural gas, oil – because of baseless claims regarding global warming. [source [278]]
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC): It’s going to keep snowing in DC until Al Gore cries “uncle” [source [279]]
SOUTH DAKOTA
Rep.-elect Kristi Noem (R-SD-AL): Resolved: ….That there are a variety of climatological, meteorological, astrological, thermological, cosmological, and ecological dynamics that can effect world weather phenomena…. [source [280]]
Sen. John Thune (R-SD): Thune Calls for Inspector General Investigation of Apparent Suppression of Scientific Dissent at EPA [source [281]]
TENNESSEE
Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN-01): Many believe greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to the gradual warming of our planet and changing of our climate. While there are many questions surrounding the science of the issue, it seems to me like we could develop a solution that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions without inflicting catastrophic damage on our economy. [source [282]]
Rep. John Duncan (R-TN-02): John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel, called global warming “the greatest scam in history.” Richard Lindzen, a professor of meteorology at MIT, said global warming alarmists “are trumpeting catastrophes that couldn’t happen even if the models were right.” [source [283]]
Rep.-elect Diane Black (R-TN-06): The far left-wing elements of this administration foresee a near future with carbon regulated as a pollutant and heavily taxed to discourage consumption and generate revenue. We must resist all of these radical approaches all geared to raise energy prices on American families and businesses. [source [284]]
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07): Also absent from the discussion in Copenhagen is the climate-gate scandal. Recently leaked e-mails reveal climate scientists have a long track record of manipulating data to hide scientific evidence that contradicts the global warming establishment. And why? To bully citizens and lawmakers into supporting job-killing energy tax schemes. This scandal raises serious questions about the Democrat’s climate control plans, questions that deserve a transparent investigation, not a rush to judgement by the bureaucrats in Copenhagen. [source [285]]
Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN): He was not overly alarmed, recalling that in any earlier climate cycle potatoes were grown in Greenland and that it had gotten its name for a reason. [source [286]]
TEXAS
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX-01): We’re finding out the world is staying the same or actually cooling. [source [287]]
Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX-02): The consensus has been for some time that global warming, climate change, continues because man is the perpetrator. Now we are beginning to learn that may not be true, that there is not a consensus that there is global warming or climate change. We now have heard about Climategate, where the expert scientists hid emails in England that disagreed with the so-called consensus that there is global warming and global climate change. We have heard now new evidence that even NASA is involved in not revealing evidence that contradicts climate change. [source [288]]
Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX-04): There is growing concern and evidence that scientific data, from which global warming theories emerged, has been manipulated, enhanced or deleted. [source [289]]
Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX-06): “You’re not just off a little, you’re totally wrong,” said Texas Rep. Joe Barton, the leading Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as he challenged Gore’s conclusion that carbon dioxide emissions cause rising global temperatures. Barton and Gore’s exchange grew testy at one point—Barton demanding that Gore get to the point and Gore responding that he would like time to answer without being interrupted. “Global warming science is uneven and evolving,” Barton said. [source [290]]
Rep. John Culberson (R-TX-07): This week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided that the air we exhale, carbon dioxide, is toxic and poses a danger to our well-being…. While this blatant power grab is disappointing, the truly alarming part is that the scientific evidence the EPA used to support its conclusion comes directly from United Nations (U.N.) climate data – the same data that were recently found to have been deliberately manipulated to support the global warming movement. When EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the proposed endangerment finding in April, she readily admitted that the agency “relied heavily upon the major findings and conclusions from recent assessments of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.” Emails recently made public offer definitive proof of a collective effort among some U.N. scientists to misrepresent climate data in order to foist their political agenda onto the public.
[source [291]]
Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX-08): Climategate reveals a serious lack of integrity in the underlying data and models, such that it is doubtful that any process can be trusted until the data and models are validated and their integrity assured. [source [201]]
Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX-10): Whereas recent events have uncovered extensive evidence from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England (in this resolution referred to as the ‘CRU’) which involved many researchers across the globe discussing the destruction, altering, and hiding of data that did not support global warming claims. [source [171]]
Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX-11): Science is never settled…they changed the phraseology because the climate isn’t warming. [source [292]]
Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX-13): Global Warming: Politics or Science? Some scientists believe that the temperature of the Earth is increasing rapidly. Others, such as those at the United Kingdom’s Hadley Center for Climate Studies, say that the Earth’s temperature is not much different now than it was 50 or 100 years ago. The case that man is causing any change in temperature is even more hotly contested. [source [293]]
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX-14): Global warming is a hoax. [source [294]]
Rep.-elect Bill Flores (R-TX-17): It is time we stopped putting petty politics based on dubious “agenda-driven, scientific” research ahead of creating more American energy. [source [295]]
Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX-19): What we have here is a case of formulating scientific findings that back up policy, instead of creating policy that is backed up by legitimate science. Proponents of man-made global warming in Congress will use every opportunity they have to invite witnesses to testify before Congress who only share their point of view. We now have clear evidence of what we knew all along, that there are perhaps thousands of scientists who don’t share these views, and sadly have been the subject of concerted efforts to discourage and suppress their findings from publication. [source [296]]
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX-21): We now know that prominent scientists were so determined to advance the idea of human-made global warming that they worked together to hide contradictory temperature data. But for two weeks, none of the networks gave the scandal any coverage on their evening news programs. And when they finally did cover it, their reporting was largely slanted in favor of global warming alarmists. [source [297]]
Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX-22): The emails that emerge from the University of East Anglia call into question the accuracy of the IPCC data. [source [298]]
Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX-26): Numerous reports now suggest that the scientists at CRU intentionally excluded data that did not fit into their political agenda…
[source [299]]
Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX-27): Global warming is scare tactic used by groups with a political agenda. [sic] [source [300]]
Rep. John Carter (R-TX-31): Global warming is simply a chicken-little scheme to use mass media and government propaganda to convince the world that destruction of individual liberties and national sovereignty is necessary to save mankind, and that the unwashed masses would destroy themselves without the enlightened global dictatorship of these frauds. [source [301]]
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX-32): Despite the Democrats’ erroneously claims that it will curb global warming, the facts remain clear: Nancy Pelosi’s National Energy Tax will kill American jobs, raise prices on hardworking families, and do little to clean up our environment. [source [302]]
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX): Taxpayer funded research by NASA and the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) concerning the warmest years on record has been the subject of dispute and after challenges, has been changed and re-released. What is less known is why the changes were made and what inherent flaws existed in the original data, if any. It is important to understand the reasons behind these alterations and further to avoid suspicion that data was massaged to fit the prescribed theory that global warming is attributable to man-made greenhouse gas emissions. [source [303]]
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX): Although rising greenhouse gas concentrations should warm the planet, it is difficult to determine how much of the past warming is due to human activities. It is even more difficult to determine whether human activities will have a relatively benign or catastrophic effect on the climate in the future. [source [304]]
UTAH
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT-01): Despite the fact that scientific data underlying the studies of global warming appear to have been manipulated to produce an intended outcome. [source [305]]
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT-03): Chaffetz lambasts immigration policy (calling for the elimination of birthright citizenship if the parents are illegal), federal meddling in schools (calling for the elimination of the Department of Education) and global warming (calling it “a farce”). [source [306]]
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT): CO2 is the ultimate plant food. . . . There is certainly not a consensus among the IPCC Authors, Lead Authors, and Expert Reviewers about the AGW hypothesis. Despite the common assertion by the media that, except for a few fringe scientists, a scientific consensus exists on climate change, some of the most qualified UN IPCC scientists maintain a very skeptical view of the AGW hypothesis. [source [307]]
VIRGINIA
Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA-01): We must recognize that these climactic cycles of heating and cooling have been going on well before man appeared on earth. [source [308]]
Rep.-elect Scott Rigell (R-VA-02): Does not believe that climate change is caused by human actions. [source [309]]
Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA-04): Elected officials need to depend on experts in the field to make determinations on the degree to which our planet is warming, and there is evidence among scientists and researchers pointing in both directions. [source [308]]
Rep.-elect Robert Hurt (R-VA-05): Hurt said Climategate is “scientists who have given us something that is not true. It is faulty information and it has real consequences in the 5th District, in the loss of jobs and in power bills from Appalachian Power Co.” [source [310]]
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA-06): There is no doubt that the earth’s climate is changing. The earth and its climate are dynamic, and have changed throughout history even without human activity. We have reached a point where some experts concur that the earth is once again warming. [source [308]]
Rep.-elect Morgan Griffith (R-VA-09): He believes that it is reckless to pursue such an economically devastating plan in order to address a scientific theory—man-made global warming—that many scientists do not even believe is happening. [source [311]]
WASHINGTON
Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA-04): Instead of allowing all scientific opinions to be heard, this conference was devoid of an honest, comprehensive debate. [source [312]]
Rep. Cathy Rodgers (R-WA-05): We believe Al Gore deserves an ‘F’ in science and an ‘A’ in creative writing. [source [313]]
WEST VIRGINIA
Rep.-elect David McKinley (R-WV-01): Many scientists have disavowed past climate change research, McKinley said, and he’s waiting for valid science to convince him there’s a problem and whether man is to blame. [source [314]]
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV-02): Despite a widespread scientific consensus, the West Virginia Republican said she’s “not convinced” that human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide are leading to global warming that will alter the planet’s climate in ways that could be dangerous. [source [315]]
WISCONSIN
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI-01): Unilateral economic restraint in the name of fighting global warming has been a tough sell in our communities, where much of the state is buried under snow. [source [316]]
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI-05): “The Scientific Truth May be an Inconvenient Truth” — blog claims “legitimate questions have been raised about global warming data not being verified and conflicting data being suppressed, better known to some as ‘Climategate.’” [source [317]]
Sen.-elect Ron Johnson (R-WI): I absolutely do not believe in the science of man-caused climate change. It’s not proven by any stretch of the imagination. [source [318]]
WYOMING
Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY-AL): The most frustrating aspect of the cap-and-trade proposals being discussed in Washington, however, is the fact that all of the economic sacrifices outlined above will be made for the sake of negligible to no actual environmental benefit. . . . There is no disputing that our planet experiences climate change – it has been cycling between cooling and warming periods long before we were here to experience the effects. I believe the jury is still out on whether mankind can alter global climate trends. [source [319]]
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY): This is a smoking gun, saying that the EPA findings were political and not scientific. [source [320]]
Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY): How willing are you to pay the personal cost of global warming legislation – even if it probably won’t make a difference? [source [321]]