Senate Republicans Turn Blind Eye on Global Warming
The Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday voted to send to the full Senate a bill to clear the way for construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to ship the dirtiest oil on the planet from Alberta’s tar sands region to refineries in Texas. Sen. Bernie Sanders opposed the bill and said he was disappointed that all of the Republicans on the committee voted against his amendment that would put the entire Senate on record as recognizing that global warming is a threat and that the United States needs to transition as fast as possible away from fossil fuels.
“The Keystone XL pipeline is not going to be forgotten by our children and our grandchildren who 30 or 40 years from now are going to be asking us, ‘What were you guys thinking about? What were you doing? Did you not hear what the scientific community all over the world was saying, that climate change is the most serious environmental crisis facing this planet?
“I am very worried about the United States Congress turning its back on science, turning its back on those people who tell us that we have got to cut carbon emissions rather than give a green light for the exploration and the production of some of the dirtiest oil on this planet. I think frankly that is crazy. I think we are moving in exactly the wrong direction,” Sanders said.
U.S. taxpayers already are paying for the consequences of climate change, he noted. As recently as 2012, a devastating and powerful storm, Hurricane Sandy, caused $60 billion in damage. “If we don't get our act together and start reversing climate change we're going to have more extreme weather disturbances,” he said.
