Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he didn’t know what the Republican party’s environmental platform is, but he does know that GOP inaction on climate change is Al Gore’s fault.
“You know, when it comes to climate change being real, people of my party are all over the board,” Graham said after a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations while responding to a question about whether Republicans could work with Democrats to address climate change.
“I said that it’s real, that man has contributed to it in a substantial way,” Graham continued. “But the problem is Al Gore’s turned this thing into religion. You know, climate change is not a religious problem for me, it’s an economic, it is an environmental problem.”
The senator then said that Republicans do not have a clear stance on climate change, or a plan to address it.
“I think the Republican Party has to do some soul-searching. Before we can be bipartisan, we’ve got to figure out where we are as a party. What is the environmental platform of the Republican Party? I don’t know, either,” he said.
Graham, who has said before that environmental policy could be a problem for the GOP in 2016, indicated that he would like to help the party develop an environmental platform.
“I’d like to have a debate within the party. Can you say that climate change is a scientifically-sound phenomenon? But can you reject the idea you have to destroy the economy to solve the problem, is sort of where I’ll be taking this debate,” he said.
H/t Huffington Post
