GOP Lawmakers Challenge Republican Congressional Leaders’ Stance on Climate
One week before Pope Francis visits the U.S. Congress, nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers have broken ranks with party leaders and called for action against climate change.
The GOP's John Boehner is speaker of the U.S. House, where a number of Republicans have signed on to a resolution saying that human activity contributes to climate change. Boehner is one of many Republicans who want to avoid making definitive statements about climate change. (Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 2.0)
One week before Pope Francis visits the U.S. Congress, nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers have broken ranks with party leaders and called for action against climate change.
The Guardian reports:
So far, at least 10 House Republicans have signed on to the resolution acknowledging that human activity contributes to climate change, and calling for actions to respond to the threat of climate change. …
The resolution, calling for “conservative environment stewardship” was endorsed by representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Carlos Curbelo of Florida, Robert Dold of Illinois, Dave Reichert of Washington, Pat Meehan, Ryan Costello, and Mike Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, and Richard Hanna and Elise Stefanik of New York, according to the National Journal. …
Catholic climate activists said on Wednesday they were planning to deliver copies of the pope’s encyclical on climate change – a sweeping denunciation of environmental degradation and global inequality – to each of the 166 Republican members of Congress. …
It is unclear how the Republican leadership will respond. The party has vowed to defeat Barack Obama’s plan to cut carbon pollution from power plants, the pillar of his plan to fight climate change.
The House speaker, John Boehner, has sidestepped the issue of climate change, saying: “I am not a scientist.” A number of Republican presidential candidates including Senator Ted Cruz of Texas deny the existence of climate change. Others, such as former senator Rick Santorum and former governor Jeb Bush have called on the pope to steer clear of the issue – although Bush later softened his language.
Read more here.
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
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