Pataki, G
gov ny?<div>
</div><div>=</div><div>http://grist.org/climate-energy/these-two-republican-presidential-candidates-defended-climate-science-during-debate/</div><div>
</div><div><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, 'Droid Serif', Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28.8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A few minutes later, former New York Gov. George Pataki delivered an even stronger pro-science statement. “One of the things that troubles me about the Republican Party is too often we question science that everyone accepts,” said Pataki. “I mean, it’s ridiculous that in the 21st century we’re questioning whether or not vaccines are the appropriate way to go. Of course they are. And it’s also not appropriate to think that human activity, putting CO2 into the atmosphere, doesn’t make the Earth warmer. All things being equal, it does. It’s uncontroverted.” Pataki added that the solution to climate change isn’t “big government” and the “EPA shutting down factories,” but rather “R&D credits” to “incentivize” the private sector to develop clean energy.</span></div><div></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It’s not the first time he’s publicly espoused climate denial. During his first presidential run in 2012, he <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56599.html#ixzz3bLK5Nsot" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">appeared on Rush Limbaugh’s radio program</a> and issued a position that will sound familiar to anyone who has been listening to GOP candidates lately; that the Earth warms and cools naturally.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I believe the Earth gets warmer and I also believe the Earth gets cooler,” he said. “And I think history points out that it does that and that the idea that man, through the production of CO2—which is a trace gas in the atmosphere, and the man-made part of that trace gas is itself a trace gas—is somehow responsible for climate change is, I think, just patently absurd when you consider all the other factors, El Niño, La Niña, sunspots, moisture in the air. There’s a variety of factors that contribute to the Earth warming and cooling.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The only thing he forgot to add is that he’s not a scientist, although that statement makes it pretty evident. He continued in full-blown denier mode, saying, “It’s just an excuse for more government control of your life. And I’ve never been for any scheme or even accepted the junk science behind the whole narrative.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Santorum is certainly a long shot for the GOP nomination. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former New York Gov. George Pataki, who both intend to announce the campaigns next week, are even longer shots. And they probably don’t help themselves in this particular contest by being in contact with reality on climate change.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That’s especially true of <b>Pataki,</b> who served as governor from 1995 through 2006. He earned a reputation as a friend of the environment during that time, pushing projects that cut greenhouse gas emissions, improved water quality, encouraged green building practices and protected green space. <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/business/article/New-York-has-leg-up-on-federal-greenhouse-gas-5523920.php#" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">According to the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Albany Times-Union</em></a>, his Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the country’s first state cap-and-trade program, was the target of a (failed) lawsuit from a Buffalo-based leader of Americans for Prosperity, which the paper pointed out is “a conservative political action group supported by <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2015/04/08/koch-brothers-climate-change-denial/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">oilmen David and Charles Koch</a> that is linked to the tea party movement.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lindsey Graham probably won’t be getting any money from the billionaire Koch brothers either. He’s <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/11/25/graham-climate-denier-problem/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">acknowledged that all the climate denial</a> going on in the GOP might not be healthy for them.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I think there will be a political problem for the Republican Party going into 2016 if we don’t define what we are for the environment,” he said late last year. “I don’t know what the environmental policy of the Republican Party is.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As for his own position, he said he accepts that humans are driving climate change but rejects cap-and-trade as a solution and claims that <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2015/05/07/al-gore-price-on-climate-denial/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">Al Gore</a> has turned it into a “religion.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I’m for finding oil and gas that we own,” <a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/melanie-hunter/lindsey-graham-i-believe-climate-change-real-reject-cap-and-trade" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(67, 146, 65); transition: color 0.2s linear; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent;">he said on Fox News last month</a>. “I’m for clean coal, I’m for natural gas, but I would like a lower carbon economy over time. Clean up the air and create jobs in the process.”</p></div><div>==</div>