Hot air
Gov. Charlie Crist is going to have a tough time getting his environmental agenda pressed this year in the Legislature if this morning’s back and forth with DEP secretary Mike Sole in the House Energy and Utilities Committee is any measure. Not only are lawmakers fretting about not having enough money, there’s a pretty big ideological divide, with Crist’s fellow Republicans in the House doubting the science behind climate change. They also aren’t sure how Republican Crist’s plan is to require more fuel-efficient cars be sold in Florida.
Only Democrats defended Sole and Crist’s plans. A few excerpts:
Rep. Lake Ray, R- Jacksonville, said that he wasn’t sure about taking “scarce resources” from seniors and students for environmental program like this. “We’re about to encumber those dollars to what I sometimes wonder if it’s not fuzzy science. I haven’t heard one time about what Florida impact is on the global warming issue. What role are we playing? If were putting 25 percent emissions in the United States, what percentage of that is Florida?”
Sole: “Yes, Florida, when you look at the global amount of emissions, is a small percentage. But saying, ‘Well, we’re small, we shouldn’t do anything’ is what every other state and every other nation in the global marketplace has done. And what does that leave you? No action.”
Ray: “When I was in grade school, we were going to have an ice age. When I got out of college, we were having an ozone problem and within 2 or three years, everybody was going to have to be completely covered up. We have no ice age. We have no ozone that’s depleted to the point that we’re all having to cover up.”
Sole pointed out that cracking down on CFCs closed the Ozone hole
Rep. Dave Murzin, R-Pensacola: “How real is the climate-change phenomenon?” Sole: “Undeniably, climate change is real”
Rep. Steve Precourt, R-Orlando, talked about the “significant issues” with cap and trade in Europe, including “downright corruption.” Sole said “politics” jiggered the carbon market and made it more of a failure.
Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples: “I’m not an enormous climate-change guy.”
Rep. Kurt Kelly, R-Ocala, fretted about the “somewhat egregious” costs associated with climate-change legislation. Sole: the costs of doing nothing are greater.
Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach: “Am I hearing that we should do nothing, go backward, stand pat?.. What I’m hearing here today is people want to argue about ‘voodoo’ science…. Sure it puts a disproportionate amount of pressure on our resources when we make a commitment, but that’s what leadership is all about.”
--- Marc Caputo, Miami Herald
From the writers of the St. Petersburg Times, The Buzz offers the latest news in Florida politics. This is a public forum sponsored and maintained by the St. Petersburg Times. When you post comments here, what you say becomes public and could appear in the newspaper. You are not engaging in private communication with candidates or Times staffers.
Global warming is a scam. Please House Republicans, rather House Conservatives (big difference), stand your ground.
It is a made up science.
Posted by: | January 13, 2009 at 05:02 PM
Secretary Sole is either sadly mistaken or duplicitous.
"Undeniably, climate change is real"...yes it is true that climate change is undeniable. 20,000 years ago glaciers covered all of Canada and much of the United States. They don't anymore. Therefore, he is correct - climate change is undeniable. The earth's climate has changed and will continue to change.
While he accurately answered the Representative's question, he dodged the actual intent of the question. What Murzin should have asked was "How real is the man-made climate change phenomenon?" or something to that effect.
The answer would be much different as there are plenty of scientists who dispute the level of man's contribution to the climate change phenomenon. I would have chosen a word other than "undeniable" just to be safe.
http://www.petitionproject.org/
Posted by: | January 13, 2009 at 05:24 PM
I thought “global arming” was a meat-whislter’s code for t-bagging!
Posted by: Bob Allen | January 13, 2009 at 05:51 PM
To the FL Legislature:
Please brief yourselves on this article which was on the Drudge Report recently.
No more Global Warming Summits for Florida!
And don't forget your mittens this weekend.
http://english.pravda.ru/science/earth/106922-earth_ice_age-0
Posted by: | January 13, 2009 at 06:18 PM
Yes, the science "experts" in the Republican Party know so much more about the topic than virtually every scientist in the world who thinks the opposite. Of course, these are the same bozos pushing the creationist nonsense in place of actual science. Evangelicalism has a stranglehold on the once-great Republican Party.
Posted by: | January 13, 2009 at 07:38 PM
Jesus says kill polar bears and book readers!
Posted by: | January 13, 2009 at 10:35 PM
Wow. And Republicans wonder why 76 percent of under-30 voters in North Carolina voted for Obama.
How did anti-intellectual fascism wrestle control over one of America's great political parties?
As a Reagan Republican who voted for Obama, I'll return to the fold when the party accepts the position of Gov. Crist -- and of science -- instead of the latest talking points they heard from Limbaugh.
Posted by: | January 13, 2009 at 10:38 PM
10:38,
What percentage of people under 30 voted for Obama in Texas, Alabama, Georgia? Pulling a state out of your a__ that supports your argument only is bush league.
Posted by: | January 13, 2009 at 11:16 PM
10:38 - hope the kool aid tastes good, but I'll pass.
Posted by: | January 13, 2009 at 11:30 PM
repiggies are retards...
Posted by: | January 13, 2009 at 11:54 PM
Agenda? Agenda? No, Reporters (and I use that once honorable label very, very loosely in this context) have no agenda.
Posted by: Steve, Lutz, FL | January 14, 2009 at 12:54 AM
Republicans once more demonstrate that they are the party of irresponsibility. Our nation will never grow up until we vote them all out of office.
Posted by: | January 14, 2009 at 08:38 AM
Jan. 12 | Environment
Professor denies global warming theory
By Raymond Brusca
Staff Writer
Published: Monday, January 12th, 2009
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/01/12/22506/
Physics professor William Happer GS ’64 has some tough words for scientists who believe that carbon dioxide is causing global warming.
“This is George Orwell. This is the ‘Germans are the master race. The Jews are the scum of the earth.’ It’s that kind of propaganda,” Happer, the Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics, said in an interview. “Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. Every time you exhale, you exhale air that has 4 percent carbon dioxide. To say that that’s a pollutant just boggles my mind. What used to be science has turned into a cult.”
Posted by: | January 14, 2009 at 09:59 AM
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SNOWSTORM?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME
Jan 14, 10:01 AM EST
Blowing snow and frigid temperatures pound nation
By AMY FORLITI
Associated Press Writer
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Arctic air extended its grip Wednesday with below-zero temperatures stretching from Montana to northern New England and frost nipping the Gulf Coast.
It was so cold Wednesday in northern Minnesota - 38 below zero at International Falls, with the wind chill during the night estimated at 50 below - that a couple of ski areas closed for the day.
Schools from Iowa to Ohio opened late so kids would not have to be out in the coldest part of the morning. Some schools closed.
The cold wave also bulged into the Northeast, abruptly dropping temperatures in New York state into the single digits and below zero - after Tuesday's readings in the 30s, the National Weather Service said. Thermometers read 8 below at Massena, on the St. Lawrence River, with a wind chill of minus 25 degrees.
Posted by: | January 14, 2009 at 10:43 AM