According to the Wall Street Journal, a group of Republican congressmen led by Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) plan to undermine the president's agenda on climate change in a manner similar to the way they've attempted to undermine negotiations with Iran.
Mr. Inhofe said the Iran letter, which was penned by Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), could be a useful model to send a message about the climate agreement.
“The Tom Cotton letter was an educational effort,” Mr. Inhofe said in an interview. Other countries think “if the president of the United States says something, it’s just automatic…His letter was over there saying, ‘the president says he can do this; he can’t do this.’ ”
It's well established that Inhofe doesn't believe in climate change.
Or is it?
Inhofe wrote an op-ed for CNN last week in which he blasted the Obama administration for being "biased" against nuclear energy which, according to him, is our best hope of stopping climate change.
James Hansen, the former head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said in 2013 that "continued opposition to nuclear power threatens humanity's ability to avoid dangerous climate change."
Yet Wednesday, the White House will celebrate Earth Day and promote its work to fend off climate change, while strategically ignoring its largest tool to cut carbon emissions -- nuclear energy -- as well as the warning of one of the administration's favorite climate scientists.
Climate change is clearly a liberal hoax but if that liberal hoax can help us build more nuclear power plants I guess James Inhofe can accept it.
I agree that climate change can and should be used in business proposals, but not in the manner that Inhofe envisions.
America has a unique opportunity to become a major exporter of clean energy technology. We can build a renewable and sustainable clean energy economy and create millions of jobs while doing so. This should be a major part of any pitch for addressing climate change and, not-coincidentally, it has been a mostly-ignored (by the media) aspect of the president's agenda.
Preventing and adapting to climate change is an unprecedented business opportunity that Republicans refuse to acknowledge. Because they're the party of business.
The good news is the clean energy economy may come to fruition thanks to actions already taken by the Obama administration which distributed loans to clean energy and technology start-ups.