Gooch, J rep

<h1 class="title-news"><a href="http://influenceexplorer.com/politician/id/ae5fc36ea98a4e4bb25621f61794e62b?cycle=-1">http://influenceexplorer.com/politician/id/ae5fc36ea98a4e4bb25621f61794e62b?cycle=-1</a></h1><h1 class="title-news">=</h1><div>11/07 grandia</div><div>What do you get when you cross a puzzle-maker with a lawyer?Apparently, in Kentucky at least, you get a legislative hearing by climate change "experts."  Last week a committee meeting of the Kentucky Agricultural and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on the science of climate change.Problem was, there were no scientists.According to <a href="http://www.lrc.ky.gov/legislator/H012.htm" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 153, 204); text-decoration: none;">Kentucky State Rep. Jim Gooch (D-Providence),</a> who chairs the committee, there was no need to call any actual scientists to the hearing because, "You can only hear that the sky is falling so many times."So instead, Rep. Gooch invited a British <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/992393.stm" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 153, 204); text-decoration: none;">puzzle-maker</a> named Christopher Monckton (who regular DeSmog readers <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/viscount-monckton-at-ease-lying-for-money" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 153, 204); text-decoration: none;">know all to well</a>) and Chris Taylor a lawyer and "senior fellow" at the Exxon-backed <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sound-science-debate-dismissed-as-so-much-smoke" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 153, 204); text-decoration: none;">"thank you for smoking"</a> Heartland Institute.According to a story in <a href="http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/story/231346.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 153, 204); text-decoration: none;">Kentucky's Lexington-Herald </a>newspaper, "Gooch said he called the Heartland Institute once he decided to address global warming and asked for any skeptical experts it might send. Scientists weren't necessary, he said."Well of course not, what a preposterous idea to host scientists at a hearing on an issue of science.I wonder if Gooch uses an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obstetrics_and_gynecology" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 153, 204); text-decoration: none;">OBGYN</a> when he needs to get a haircut, or calls a mechanic when he needs an opinion on the most recent developments in coal mining?And speaking of coal mining (drum-roll please)... Gooch and his brother own a company called <a href="http://www.westkentuckysteel.com/" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 153, 204); text-decoration: none;">West Kentucky Steel Construction Co</a>., which sells mining equipment to Peabody Energy, Arch Coal and other coal companies that would rather see the entire of issue of global warming go away.What is even more surprising is that Gooch's fellow Democrats do not feel that this apparent conflict of interest and complete disregard for climate science is much of a worry. <a href="http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/story/233398.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 153, 204); text-decoration: none;">The strongest rebuke uttered</a> by Gooch's Democrat colleagues was from House Speaker Jody Richards (D-Bowling) who stated that she"didn't like it very well."Fortunately though, some Kentucky bloggers are taking the issue a little more seriously than House Speaker Richards:<a href="http://www.bluegrassreport.org/bluegrass_politics/2007/11/the-now-nationa.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 153, 204); text-decoration: none;">The Now NATIONAL Embarrassment Of State Rep. Jim Gooch (D)</a><a href="http://www.kftc.org/blog/archive/2007/11/19/rep-gooch-on-good-morning-america" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 153, 204); text-decoration: none;">Rep. Gooch on Good Morning America</a>desmog</div><div></div><h1 class="title-news">

                    Kentucky Climate Deniers: Fitz Steele, Stan Lee Say Climate Change Not In Humans' Control
         </font></h1>
       
       <div class="comments_datetime_new border_none relative v05" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entrybyline="entryByline">
        
                          <p>
                                                  <b>The Huffington Post</b>
          &nbsp;|&nbsp;
                    
                      
                                                           By <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nick-visser" rel="author">Nick Visser</a>

         <span style="display: block;" class="posted-and-updated">
                  Posted: <span itemprop="datePublished">07/12/2013 12:51 pm EDT</span>
                                    
                                    
                                    
                                    
                                    
                                    </span>
                                    </span></p>
             
        
       </div>

      
       <div class="float_left">
                 
                        
                
                </div>

                          
        
                  
                                    
         <p>Climate change denial is getting some bipartisan support in

the Kentucky Legislature following President Barack Obama's landmark <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/obama-climate-change-2013_n_3497151.html" target="_hplink">climate change speech</a> last month.

During a committee meeting on natural resources and the environment on Tuesday, the <a href="http://www.kentucky.com/2013/07/09/2709263/kentucky-official-warns-of-higher.html" target="hplink">state's leading energy official warned</a> that Obama's climate change plans could mean higher energy prices. Several state lawmakers seized the opportunity to criticize <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-zeller-jr/climate-change-study_b_3285245.html" target="hplink">the widely accepted and scientifically proven environmental changes</a>, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

"The climate's always going to change," <a href="http://www.lrc.ky.gov/legislator/h045.htm" target="_hplink">Republican state Rep. Stan Lee</a>

said. "We're not in control of this world. ... There is one who is in

control but it ain't any of us. And to think that we can change what he

created I think is short-sighted and foolish."

Kentucky has been a major U.S. coal producer for decades and was the <a href="http://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=KY" target="hplink">third largest in the country in 2011</a>, according to the most recent data from the Energy Information Administration. But earlier this year the <a href="http://energy.ky.gov/Coal%20Facts%20Library/Kentucky%20Coal%20Production%20Update%202012.pdf" target="hplink">number of jobs in Kentucky coal mines</a> dropped to the <a href="http://www.kentucky.com/2013/05/21/2648551/kentucky-coal-jobs-at-lowest-level.html" target="_hplink">lowest levels seen</a> since the state started counting in 1950.

"We're not blind. We know there is a war on coal," <a href="http://www.lrc.ky.gov/legislator/h084.htm" target="_hplink">Democratic state Rep. Fitz Steele</a>

said. "There has been climate change since the beginning of time," he

added. "There is not but one fellow that can control it ... It's going

to change no matter what."

The Courier Journal, based in Louisville, responded to the committee meeting <a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130711/OPINION01/307110016/Editorial-Pray-Kentucky-legislators-enlightened-about-global-climate-change">with an editorial titled</a>,

"Pray Kentucky legislators are enlightened about global climate

change." The piece lambasted the legislators' comments, as well as those

by committee co-chairman <a href="http://www.lrc.ky.gov/legislator/h012.htm" target="hplink">Jim Gooch</a>, a Democrat, who asked why <a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130709/GREEN/307090043/Lawmakers-disagree-about-climate-change?nclick_check=1" target="hplink">all of the carbon dioxide exhalations</a> of the planet's seven billion people weren't also contributing to "so-called global warming."

The lawmakers aren't the first to use religion to attack climate science. <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/03/09/441515/inhofe-god-says-global-warming-is-a-hoax/" target="hplink">Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe (R)</a> has been vocal about his belief that climate change is a "hoax," <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EKd6UJPghUs" target="hplink">criticizing the "arrogance"</a> of those who think they can change God's plans for the planet while promoting his book last year.