Joe Barton: A Look Back In Video

Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-TX)
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Today’s oil spill hearing ensures Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) will be entertaining YouTube audiences and warming Democratic hearts for weeks and months to come.

But we’ve been here before!

Most famously, Barton last year challenged Nobel-prize winning Energy Secretary Steven Chu about where fossil fuel comes from. After misunderstanding Chu’s answer, Barton then smugly claimed on Twitter that, “I seemed [sic] to have baffled the Energy Sec with basic question – Where does oil come from?”

Watch the exchange that prompted the tweet:

At an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing In March 2009, Barton (the ranking member of the panel) explained how “adaptation” — such as finding shade when it is warm out — is the obvious solution to climate change:

Watch:

Finally, here’s Barton on Fox in July seizing on so-called “Carbongate,” an extremely short-lived right-wing cause celebre involving an iffy study questioning climate change. “Just as Nixon had Watergate, Obama now has Carbongate to deal with,” said Barton.

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