Marco Rubio Shrugs Off Climate Change In State Of The Union Response
“Government can’t control the weather.” Climate activists in Florida were hopeful for a different outcome.
Delivering the official Republican response to the State of the Union, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio dismissed climate change as a challenge beyond government “control,” and disappointed environmental activists in the Senator’s home state hopeful that Rubio would acknowledge the issue given top billing in President Barack Obama’s speech.
“When we point out that no matter how many job-killing laws we pass, our government can’t control the weather — [President Obama] accuses us of wanting dirty water and dirty air,” said Rubio, who gave the live televised address from the House Speaker’s Conference Room.
Rubio’s speech also made reference to clean energy sources such as solar and wind energy, but added, “God also blessed America with abundant coal, oil, and natural gas.”
The Florida Senator also dismissed climate change as a challenge too large for government in an interview with BuzzFeed earlier this month. “Anything that we would do on [climate change] would have a real impact on our economy, but probably, if it was only us [the U.S.] doing it, a very negligible impact on the environment,” Rubio said.
Climate change advocates in Florida were hopeful that Rubio’s address would not only name climate change as one of the nation’s top challenges, but acknowledge it as a man-made phenomenon. Members of Florida’s Sierra Club delivered a letter Tuesday to the Senator’s home office in Miami, urging Rubio to address the “thousands of Floridians who are being forced to protect their homes, businesses and livelihoods from the effects of climate change,” read the letter.
“The economy of Florida is so tied to what happens to climate change that we’re talking about the loss of our coastal areas,” said Jonathan Ullman of the Sierra Club’s South Florida chapter.
Ullman, who spoke to BuzzFeed by phone before Rubio’s address, said, “We hope in his speech he acknowledges it, and acknowledges that it’s man-made. I’m sure he’s written the speech already, but he can stop the presses — there’s still time.”
Ullman said that Rubio’s South Florida regional director, Alyn Cruz Higgins, promised the Sierra Club’s letter would get passed along to Washington.
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labman57 4 months agoThe tea party Republican’s mind is a scary place. Exhibit A — their “sh*t happens” rationalization regarding global warming and climate change trends: “Global warming is a fallacy. My evidence? It snowed today in Buffalo. Of course, if it is real, it has nothing to do with carbon-based gas emissions. My 4th grade science teacher told me so. But then, if carbon gases are responsible, it has nothing to do with human activity — it’s totally natural, like plastic. However, if it turns out that global climate change is the result of manmade carbon-based gas emissions, well, it’s God’s will. Therefore, only He can do anything about it.”
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esperanzarubiot 4 months agoThis man deserves NONE of the grand opportunities that have been extended to him by life. NONE of them.
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jenniferp47 4 months agoI hope more highschool and college students with no real information respond to this with profanities. It really gives me hope for our voting population.
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2005Sqeets 4 months agoThat really doesn’t surprise me at all. It seems the Republican Party will continue to deny obvious needed change because of their “beliefs” “morals” & “traditions”, despite the overwhelming literal “winds & tides of change” that the Floridains mentioned above are so worried about. Rubio states, “God also blessed America with abundant coal, oil, and natural gas.” Ok, so if God has blessed us with these wonderful FINITE RESOURCES, couldn’t he have also “blessed us with…” the ability to acknowledge that they are just that? Finite, non replaceable, eventually ending in supply never to be able to be used again because they will no longer exist on planet earth. One way to honor the stunning scientific discovery that (these fuels Will Run Out) could be, to prepare for an eventual means to an end when (Gods abundance of natural resources as Rubio put it) does run out, because itwill. It’s not a religious belief, nor a fantasy, it’s not a democratic way of thinking, nor a republican way of thinking, it’s a fact. Mr Rubio may I ask you a question? When do you think we will run out of wind to blow turbines for wind farms? Or strong waves to power coastal tidal power plants? When do you think the sun will stop shining to fuel our solar power plants? Because it seems to me that the waves across the east coast could have been powerful enough to fuel tidal energy plants during Sandy, & on the gulf coast during Katrina, and that the sun was shining bright enough to power solar panels during this past 2.5+ yr drought…that hasn’t added as many jobs as we’d hoped the drought would.. For the people that still believe in a reasonable responsible rational Republican Party, I feel for you. It not only hurts your party, it hurts us all. I can only hope that sometime soon reality will weigh heavier for people like Marco Rubio, than will being a poster boy of the RP who’s job is to yet again coat their absolute denial of reality with a pathetic attempt to seem more “open” &”racially diverse” by having Rubio “save grace to his people”. Until they accept reality, it’s simply a lost cause .
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jenniferp47 4 months ago
I agree with you on finding a less-finite solution to renewable energy; you’re right that we need to find resources with less of an expiration date than oil and coal. However, accusing the republican party of making decisions on “morals” and “beliefs” is the pot calling the kettle black. The biggest problem I have with much of either side of the house making decisions is that they’re almost COMPLETELY based off of whimsical beliefs and not personal rights. This isn’t a republican issue solely, most of the democratic voters and politicians I know of base their votes and beliefs solely on their own personal convictions and seem to lose track of the larger issue. As I am neither republican nor democrat and think that people’s personal liberties and smaller government is the way to go maybe I see this issue differently, but I think you’re pointing fingers with dirty hands.
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danielk26 4 months agoWrong. Accepting that climate change is caused by human activity is like accepting the Earth is round and revolves around the sun. It’s a matter of science, and the overwhelming consensus is that this is happening, and we need to act now to avoid destructive consequences. Rubio and other republicans are part of a denial machine, don’t believe me? Look up Rubio and Koch Industries. Oil and gas has him(and many other republicans) in their pocket. Rubio accepted the fact of climate change being caused by man, he is on record saying that. But then suddenly he changes his tune, right when he gets 32,000 in campaign contributions from Koch industries. Seem like a bit of a coincidence to you?
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