Montana State Rep. Joe Read (R) believes climate change is real, and it is spectacular.
Read introduced House Bill 549 into the Montana legislature, which, if passed, would declare climate change “beneficial to the welfare and business climate of Montana.” This, the bill says, would allow the state to manage its natural resources appropriately, and ensure the state’s economic development.
The bill also declares that “global warming is a natural occurrence and human activity has not accelerated it,” and that “reasonable amounts of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere have no verifiable impacts on the environment.”
Brad Johnson of Wonk Room interviewed Read, and writes that Read said he is
motivated by his desire to protect the state of Montana from an intrusive federal government, whose laws threaten the “progressive extraction policy” of the resource-rich state. He also expressed his anger at “outside sources” who are “attacking our infrastructure projects by lawsuits.” In recent years, Montana environmentalists have had mixed success challenging coal plant construction and coal strip mines.
Read also said that the “science is being skewed” by the federal government to help it expand its power. “If you follow the money, the science has been pushed toward where the money is coming from,” Read told Johnson. “The money is coming from the federal government. I believe global science is an ideal, not a true science.”
“Sometimes you have to do fairly radical things to address a federal government,” he said.
Via Wonk Room.
