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
You know for the first time I am actually slightly optomistic about the ability for the US to do something about climate change. I don’t think any action will come quickly, but it seems the Republican party has been very much softening their stance as of late. We’ll see.
Lindsey, Lindsey. The problem for Republicans may be faith-based, but the belief that anything supported by a Democrat, even if solidly based in data, cannot be supported by Republicans is a Republican tenet. Democrats are quite willing to adopt good ideas no matter where they come from: health insurance, for instance.
Saying the GOP hasn’t done anything about climate change because Al Gore is fat would’ve made more sense.
Ummm, yes. Al Gore was for taking action on climate change so clearly the GOP needed to be against it. Damn you Al Gore!
You know what else, in 2002 he came out against unilateral war in Iraq. The man is pure evil, driving America to make catastrophic mistakes by the sheer force of his analytical ability.
This is rich in a way only Graham Crackers could do. People heaped scorn on Al Gore and the truth telling of An Inconvenient Truth but apparently sitting on their hands works for Rs and especially the nitwit in the Senate Inhofe who chairs the committee which would potentially deal with global warming issues.