Wow. This one is really something. Graham goes from supporter to skeptic in the space of a few weeks. Here’s the quote:
“I think they’ve oversold this stuff, quite frankly. I think they’ve been alarmist and the science is in question…”
Graham appeared on Wednesday at a press conference with Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), who was rolling out his own energy bill, a measure that relies heavily on expanding nuclear power and raising fuel economy standards without putting a cap on carbon dioxide emissions. Yesterday, Graham said he didn’t think any energy bill could get 60 votes this year because oil drilling has become too controversial. Today he decided, at the last minute, to back Lugar’s bill.
Reporters asked Graham several times about why he was supporting Lugar’s bill, when just a few months ago he had argued that the Senate shouldn’t pass a “half-assed” bill that lacked hard restrictions on carbon emissions. Graham replied that he now doesn’t think pricing carbon is that important. “The science about global warming has changed,” he noted, offhandedly. “I think they’ve oversold this stuff, quite frankly. I think they’ve been alarmist and the science is in question,” Graham told reporters. “The whole movement has taken a giant step backward.”
more here at Mother Jones news
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tallbloke says:
June 10, 2010 at 10:53 pm
It (Global Cooling) is in the first line:
“The 58th Bilderberg Meeting will be held in Sitges, Spain 3 – 6 June 2010. The Conference will deal mainly with Financial Reform, Security, Cyber Technology, Energy, Pakistan, Afghanistan, World Food Problem, Global Cooling, Social Networking, Medical Science, EU-US relations.”
Rather astonishing, to put it mildly! This could explain Graham’s sudden epiphany.
I wonder if they have told Obama yet?
But the good Senator saw the light didn’t he? I really like the sound of that sentence – this stuff has been oversold…… I think that he is genuinely beginning to understand – perhaps he has been doing a bit of reading.
Now if all our politicians did just a little bit of reading around the subject – I recommend Prof. Robert M Carter’s ‘Climate: The Counter Consensus’. If they read Prof Carter’s book they would all be singing along with Sen Lindsey Graham. What a happy day that would be for the world’s taxpayers.
Rhoda R says:
June 10, 2010 at 8:14 pm
“He and the other previous cap & trade supporters can take this stance because they know that Jackson’s EPA will do what they don’t have the backbone to do. This way they can say they’re against C&T without backing off of their baseline agenda.”
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!
There will be much handwringing and sympathetic clucking from the Demlipublicrats in DC as the EPA does their dirty work for them. Dishonest cowards!
Graham appeared on Wednesday
Looks like he saw the primary vote results from Tuesday and is trying to save his hide
but that’s just a guess
I suspect the senator has been looking for a way to extricate himself from a position he had decided was no longer acceptable to a majority of those who vote in his electorate; watch for the trickle of politicians who once embraced alarmism as it becomes a stampede to a more rational and less faith-based attitude to climate science.
@Raredog says:
June 10, 2010 at 8:39 pm
“Is this a surprise? The Bilderberg Group met in Spain (3 – 6 June) and one of the topics for discussion was Global Cooling!”
Good to see they are getting the priorities right.
“I fear that many reputations are going to suffer and that science and environmentalism in general will take a hammering.”
Environmentalism will be able to concentrate on its real concerns, and real climate science will be able to advance easier.
Careful guys, Graham is a politician. It is an election year, and if I’m not mistaken he is up for reelection. He will say whatever he thinks is going to increase his chance for reelection, whether that will reflect on his future votes or not is anybody’s guess.
“I asked him, if carbon emissions aren’t warming the planet, why are they bad? Here’s his reply:
I just think it’s bad … the reason I don’t hang out in traffic jams and get out and suck up the wind is I think this crap is bad for you. We’ve had an increase in asthma cases. If you’ve ever been to Thailand stuck behind 400 motorcycles, it’s a lousy place to be. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist in my view to understand that the stuff floating in the Gulf, if you burn it doesn’t make it better for you. If you wouldn’t go swimming in this stuff, why would you burn it and want to breath it?”
Lindsey Graham needs to go back to school. Did he ever make it past the 6th grade? For starters, he needs to know what C02 is (and isn’t). Yes, it’s great that he’s finally getting a glimmer of a clue, but yowza! What a maroon.
I’m encouraged. Over the past 3 years I have sent what seemed to me like persuasive material on global cooling, or at least non-AGW, to Sen. Lindsay’s office on several occasions. A little bit here and a little bit there, and maybe he has seen enough to open his eyes and do some of his own digging. In general I don’t like his political positions, but he is more reasonable (or reasoning) than most senators, and I applaud his willingness to change his position on this one.
But then, it is clear that he is a Bilderberg puppet! — NOT! Murray
I am also rather annoyed with politicians in general, but surely when one of them sees the light, shouldn’t we all try and be a bit more grateful? Most politicos that have supported AGW have been fed nothing but bullocks and hysteria from government and industry “scientists” for quite some time, and are only now becoming aware of the scale of the fraud. I never attack recent converts for past ignorance as they are victims of a sophisticated campaign of lies and distortions peddled by an equally deluded media. Senator Graham should be welcomed back to reality, and supported in his now factually accurate views on the environment. Other lawmakers are certainly watching what happens to those that take the risk of admitting they were wrong. They should be given a soft landing.
Senator Graham still thinks CO2 is pollution however.
he is far too clueless to understand the science, but he DOES understand that the social winds have changed. What’s funny is that he could *never* have done this much damage to the “climate change” movement if he had played it straight from the start – but by working so hard with Kerry and Liebermann all year, and then only stabbing them in the back at the LAST possible minute, he has destroyed any chance of their bill passing. AND it’s too late in the year to come up with a coherent backup plan!!! (Congress may still pass some kind of energy bill, but now it will be a disjointed mess made up mainly of payoffs to various interest groups such as the ethanol lobby)
Well played, sir, well played!!!
p.s. Hey Kerry – we could have told you NOT to trust him!!! ROFL!!!
I’m glad to see Lindsay seems to be waking up to reality. We cannot say the same about the man in the Oval Office. By the way, have you seen this video?
Read the entire account at Mother Jones before you start praising Graham. He comes off as a complete buffoon and moron.
Graham was the only “conservative” behind the bill. They called it a bipartisan bill because of him. So now they will tell us it is better because it is not bi-partisan?
Roger Knights says:
June 10, 2010 at 8:28 pm
“Now, if Congress had actually disapproved the EPA of its endangerment finding about CO2, we’ll really have been getting somewhere!”
Only three votes short — and those will be made up in November.
Only problem with that is that there is only a short 6 months window for this type of joint resolution. From now on it takes 60 votes not the 50+1 needed for the Disapproval Resolution.
The practical way of stopping it after November is to cut funding EPA for implementing its regulations.
Best to treat the Bilderberger news with extreme caution: it looks too good to be true.
For a humorous look at the pros and cons of global warming check out today’s article on cracked.com
http://www.cracked.com/article_18563_6-global-warming-side-effects-that-are-sort-awesome.html
The bigger contributor for discrediting Global Warming/Climate Change has been his holyness, the supreme and only bedwetter maximum, Al Baby.
He will be remembered for provoking the most profound revision of current paradigms of science , philosophy, ethics, research, education, etc.
To such extent it has been this general debasement that, if questioned, every “climate scientist” , “ecologist”,etc. would inmediately reject being called or recognized as such.
Senator Graham now thinks more carbon in the atmosphere is a good thing? Nah !
From yesterday’s debate on EPA’s power to regulate, as reported by NPR
Senator LINDSEY GRAHAM (Republican, South Carolina): You don’t have to believe in the planet is going to melt tomorrow, but this idea that what comes out of cars and trucks and coal-fired plants is good for us makes no sense to me.
“Graham replied that he now doesn’t think pricing carbon is that important.”
What has changed is the price of coal in the Eastern US. In order for nuclear power to be cost competitive in the Eastern US 5 years ago one would have had to apply a large ‘carbon tax’.
The delivered price of coal to the Eastern US is now to the point that nuclear power is fairly cost competitive with coal.
Rhoda R has it right. Graham was the first to figure it out. More will follow when they realize that they can cover their backsides by denouncing AGW and get what they want by letting the EPA do the heavy lifting. Now if they come out against AGW AND vote against the EPA I’ll start to beleave them.
He’s spinning that the science has only recently changed as he tries to pull back from his earlier lunacy because he sees public opinion has changed.
In doing so he attempts to obfuscate his escape by equating CO2 with the real tail pipe pollution/emissions.
“suck up the wind” , “increase in asthma cases” , stuck behind 400 motorcycles”, the stuff floating in the Gulf, if you burn it doesn’t make it better for you”, you wouldn’t go swimming in this stuff, why would you burn it and want to breath it”
He’s a posturing politician who can’t perceive how he sounds and looks as he adjusts his posture. He probably has no idea how lame his grand mal rationale appears.
I mean does he really think all he had to do was pretend all he was opposed to was pollution? You know, the stinky stuff from tailpipes?
As if that’s the CO2 everyone has been debating? Or that it’s all the same? How stupid is he or does he think the public is?
It’s just like a sleazy politician to avoid clarifying exactly what they are talking about. That way they can always adapt and re-posture to any criticism by restating what they “really meant”. All the while pretending to have been clear, concise and profound the entire time. The esteemed Senator can wash my car.
I’m not sure what prompted his sea change , but it’s not for fear of losing his seat – he won’t be up for reelection until 2014 .
From the Mother Jones interview:
Amazing ignorance of middle school chemistry!