EPA Director Confirmation Hearings Turn Into A Debate On Climate Change

The video above exemplifies why Bernie Sanders (I-VT) thanked John Barrasso (R-WY) for his ignorant, ostrich-like behavior during the Senate Environment Committee hearings on Gina McCarthy, president Obama's nominee to head the EPA. The cameo by Climate Change denier Jim Inhofe is hilarious. It's worth pointing out that Miss McConnell put 8 anti-Science, Climate Change deniers on the committee, David Vitter, Jim Inhofe, John Barrasso, Jeff Sessions, Mike Crapo, Roger Wicker, John Boozman and Deb Fischer. Thursday the 8 clowns howled like a pack of wolves instead of asking serious questions of the nominee and made it clear they're against... well, the EPA. The L.A. Times characterized their behavior as "a clear signal to the White House that they will continue fighting environmental regulations as vigorously as they did in the first term."

As head of the EPA's air pollution branch, McCarthy oversaw the promulgation of the most sweeping and controversial regulations during Obama's first term, including reducing carbon emissions from cars and light trucks and cutting mercury from power plant emissions.

"I'm not sure whether the nominee before us today is personally aware of so many folks who have actually lost their jobs because of the EPA and the role that I believe it is taking now, which is failing our country," said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo). "How many more times, if confirmed, will this EPA director pull the regulatory lever and allow another [coal] mining family to fall through the EPA's trap door to joblessness, to poverty and to poor health?"

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has said McCarthy wants to pursue a "radical" agenda, but Senate staff members say the minority is unlikely to block her confirmation.

Though the decline in coal-fired power plants is driven largely by cheap natural gas, air pollution rules hit fossil fuels, such as oil and coal, hardest because of their high level of dangerous emissions. Obama has said that if Congress doesn't pass legislation to address climate change, he would get his agencies, including the EPA, to move on the issue.

Senators of both parties pressed McCarthy on how the EPA would tackle climate change, but she declined to give specific answers. Instead, she asserted unequivocally that climate change would be a priority for the EPA.

"This is one of the greatest challenges of our generation and our great obligation to future generations," McCarthy said. "I am convinced that those steps can and must be pursued with common sense. And I firmly believe they can produce not only benefits for public health, but also create markets for emerging and new technologies and new jobs."

Democrats defended McCarthy, pointing to her long record of working with politicians of both parties before she arrived at the EPA in 2009. McCarthy served as a key environmental official for three Republican governors in her native Massachusetts, including Mitt Romney, before leading Connecticut's environmental protection office under Republican Gov. Jodi Rell.

Under McCarthy, Connecticut entered a greenhouse-gas emissions trading market that spans the Northeast. If confirmed, she said, reducing greenhouse gases on a national scale would be one of her goals. McCarthy also pledged to clean up water sources and to revise "antiquated" chemical safety rules.

Efforts by Congress to stymie measures similar to those implemented by McCarthy in Connecticut were beaten back by the Obama White House. But the administration itself played a role in thwarting some important pollution rules. And it's clear that McCarthy, like her predecessor, Lisa P. Jackson, is outside the tight-knit circle around Obama that sets administration policies.

Maybe the Republicans could call Joe "Oily Joe" Barton (R-TX) in to explain how right-wing crackpots need look no further than Noah's Ark to know exactly what's up with climate change.

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Joe Barton (R-TX) And A Buy Bull Environmental Strategy-- Soaked In Oil, Of Course

Joe Barton (R-Oil)

I don't watch much TV but, aside from Rachel Matthews, Lawrence O'Donnell and Chris Hayes, I spend most of my TV time watching the History Channel. Not Swamp People, Ax Men, American Pickers, Counting Cars, or that kind of garbage, but the quality stuff, like Ancient Aliens, Vikings and The Bible. I have this innate ability, though, to not mix up the real world with the TV world... even though I was tweeting back and forth a couple weeks ago with Ragnar Lodbrok and shieldmaiden Lagertha.

Texas Congressman Joe Barton (AKA, "Oily"Joe Barton, the former chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, who has taken more legalistic bribes from Big Oil and Gas than any other Member of the House, $1,727,055) is currently hoping to draw attention away from his latest ethics problems. So... out comes the clown makeup and the "Hey look over here; I'm bonkers" routine. Or maybe he really does have trouble distinguishing between what he sees on TV or reads in fairy tales and the real world-- which is fine, except that he's supposed to be a legislator helping set the country's policy agenda.

Like most Members of Congress whose careers are financed by Big Oil, Barton is a fanatic opponent of the findings of climate scientists. He claims, like the rest of the bribed "conservatives," that man has no responsibility for global warming if global warming even exists. (Barton admits it does.)

The Texas Republican Joe Barton stands out even among his fellow conservative Republicans who have made it an article of faith to deny the existence of a human component to climate change.

On Wednesday, Barton cemented that reputation by citing the Old Testament to refute scientific evidence of man-made global warming, drawing on the story of Noah's ark.

"I would point out that if you are a believer in the Bible, one would have to say the great flood was an example of climate change," Barton told a congressional hearing on Wednesday in a video first shown on the Buzzfeed website. "That certainly wasn't because mankind had overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy."

Barton was speaking at a house subcommittee hearing called by the Republican leadership to promote a bill that would allow Congress to fast-track a controversial pipeline that would pump crude from the tar sands of Alberta to refineries on the Texas coast.

The Texas congressman began by reiterating his support for the Keystone XL pipeline. He went on to say that he did not dispute the existence of climate change-- just any connection to human activity, such as the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the burning of fossil fuels.

"I would point out that people like me who support hydrocarbon development don't deny that climate is changing," he said. "I think you can have an honest difference of opinion of what's causing that change without automatically being either all in, that's all because of mankind, or it's all just natural. I think there's a divergence of evidence."

Barton has made a reputation for his outspoken rejection of man-made climate change, and for his support for the oil industry.

In 2010, in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, Barton became an object of ridicule for offering a profuse apology to the oil company Barton told then-BP-chairman Tony Hayward he was ashamed that the White House had reached a deal requiring the company to set aside $20bn for clean-up and restoration costs. "I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case, a $20bn shakedown," Barton said at the time. "I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where any citizen or corporation that does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure that, again in my words, amounts to a shakedown. So I apologise."

The Democrat running against Barton is Ken Sanders. I've been talking to him on the phone a lot lately but religion and Bible studies aren't matters we've gotten into. Legislation is. Ken seems like the kind of guy who appreciates the essential message Jesus brought to man, nut whenever I talk to him, he seems focused on things like job creation, economic justice and equality. I reached him this morning about Barton's pontificating and he was already putting together a statement for the local media:

Apparently Congressman Joe Barton is also a Biblical scholar and a climate scientist as he has looked into the Good Book and found evidence to deny the clear reality of human impact on climate change.

Joe Barton is a disappointment to Texans who count on him to represent their interest; his understanding of God’s holy word is somewhat suspect as well. As a person of faith, I'm personally disappointed that he has looked into the Good Book and found evidence to deny any human impact on climate change. I believe most people in the faith community consult the Bible to strengthen their faith and for instruction on how to live a moral and upright life, not to twist and misinterpret the Word of God for political purposes. He simply supports big oil without restrictions. We have to consider the environmental impact of oil drilling and pipeline construction. His comments lack sound judgment or logic.

This is typical rhetoric from "Smokey" Joe. Joe Barton is not new to debate and where his loyalty lies when it comes to the oil and gas industry. Congressman Barton is the same person who in 2010 apologized to BP after the Gulf oil spill. He simply supports big oil, its use without hazardous restrictions to humankind and the environment in which we must live. His comment, like his unfailing support for the oil industry, lacks reasoning.

This is just another example of Rep. Joe Barton, placing his financial interest over the needs and concerns of fellow Texans in the 6th Congressional District. His statement does not come as a surprise considering how he has received $3.2 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industries, any number of plausible responses might well come to his mind. However, support of the Keystone Pipeline need not be conflated with the political rhetoric for the sake of Joe Barton's financial gain.

The fact is that climate change is real, evident and supported more by scientific evidence daily. His comment, like his unfailing support for the oil industry, lacks reasoning.

In the year 2013 it is completely unacceptable that a backward thinking politician like Joe Barton is voting on legislation that will affect the quality of life for future generations. The science on this issue is not debatable. Joe Barton simply does not believe in science.

Far be it from me to try to compete with the Biblical interpretations of a scholar like Joe Barton. What’s next for Joe Barton? Will Barton cite the Lord turning water into blood as an argument against clean water? Will Joe Barton refer to plagues of locusts, flies, lice and frogs as arguments against mosquito control?

While you're watching Barton make a fool of himself at the hearing (below), please consider making a contribution to Ken's congressional campaign, here at the Saving Social Security Act Blue Page. Yes, Ken opposes Chained CPI and other schemes to take benefits away from seniors. Barton, of course, is a longtime opponent of social safety programs that benefit working families and the elderly.

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