Quote of the week – Senator Sheldon Whitehouse shamed by hearing witness

Author and pro-energy advocate Alex Epstein shocked attendees of a congressional hearing when he told a Democratic senator to “apologize” to fossil fuel companies he’s vilified and tried to silence, or he should simply “resign.”

Epstein made the statement during a Senate hearing Wednesday, referring to Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse:

“As long as your life is being made possible by the people in the fossil fuel industry, I think you should be grateful, and I think it is a crime — a moral crime — that you are damning anyone by association,” “I wish Sen. Whitehouse were here because what he is doing to the free speech of those companies and anyone associated with them is unconstitutional and I think he should apologize or resign,”

Epstein, who runs the think tank the Center for Industrial Progress, was referring to Whitehouse’s continued vilification of fossil fuel companies and groups skeptical of global warming.

In recent months, Whitehouse has even promoted federal prosecution of groups he believes cast doubt on the supposed dangers of man-made global warming. Whitehouse recently praised an op-ed calling for federal prosecutors to go after companies and think tanks under an anti-mafia law.

“Fossil fuel companies and their allies are funding a massive and sophisticated campaign to mislead the American people about the environmental harm caused by carbon pollution,” Whitehouse wrote in a May Washington Post op-ed.

“Their activities are often compared to those of Big Tobacco denying the health dangers of smoking,” he wrote. “Big Tobacco’s denial scheme was ultimately found by a federal judge to have amounted to a racketeering enterprise.”

Epstein argued it’s immoral for Whitehouse and others to attack the free speech rights of companies and think tanks, especially since the modern world and all its prosperity would not be possible without fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas.

Full story: http://dailycaller.com/2016/04/14/author-tells-dem-senator-to-resign-for-vilifying-the-fossil-fuel-industry/

h/t to Matt Dempsey

 

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Bruce Cobb
April 14, 2016 2:51 pm

“A lot of people haven’t seen through the scam that’s being perpetrated,” Whitehouse said.
Yes, and that includes Climate Liar Whitehouse, who is busily perpetrating it.

maarten
April 14, 2016 3:07 pm

Sen.Whitehouse’s statement “Fossil fuel companies and their allies are funding a massive and sophisticated campaign to mislead the American people about the environmental harm caused by carbon pollution” could just as easy be changed to: “Climate alarmist movement and their allies are funding a massive and sophisticated campaign to mislead the American people about the environmental harm caused by carbon pollution,” – and this statement would reflect the reality of today much more accurately…

Neo
April 14, 2016 5:55 pm

I’ve noted the parallels between the Tobacco Institute and the Climate Change crowd from my early expose to this topic.
Both were the “center of the universe” for PhD Statistics holders where data is tortured until it gives up the desired results.

April 14, 2016 7:28 pm

Kind of wrong in that Whitehouse is a Democrat and therefore cannot be shamed

April 14, 2016 7:53 pm

Alex Epstein nails the most important political point.
These politicians and bureaucrats all swore oaths to uphold the USA Constitution.
Now they seek to violate every major aspect of it to feather their own nests and protect their big Climate Lie.
Time to bring back physical punishment for oath breaking and stupidity..

SAMURAI
April 14, 2016 8:58 pm

Never in the history of mankind has one industry contributed more to the technical, social, scientific, medical, agricultural and economic advancement than oil industry.
ONE gallon of gasoline is the equivalent to 500 man-hours of work, which has freed billions of people from a life of abject poverty and a grueling life of hard manual labor, with an average life-expectancy of just 40 years, which it was prior to the first oil well being drilled in 1859.
Feckless Leftist political hacks like Whitehouse seek to demonize and destroy the oil industry and, by proxy, capitalism, in the pursuit of failed Leftist political agendas of economic and political tyranny over those they rule over.
The more Leftists try to destroy economies and the more money they waste on the disconfirmed CAGW hypothesis, the bigger the political blowback against Leftists will be once CAGW crashes and burns.
“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Amber
April 14, 2016 9:07 pm

No wonder the public wants Washington outsiders . The current intelligence gene pool is evaporating no doubt because of global warming .

LarryFine
April 14, 2016 9:55 pm

The spirit behind the environmental movement is clearly anti-Homo Sapiens.

wacojoe
April 14, 2016 11:38 pm

He should have implored Boxer M’am to fly to Washington in one of her solar-charged electtric airplanes, and reminded her that the lights and her microphone on Capital Hill are powered by a coal-fired generator.

April 15, 2016 12:50 am

“…the modern world and all its prosperity would not be possible without fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas…”
Absolutely spot on!

Johann Wundersamer
April 15, 2016 2:26 am

Epstein made the statement during a Senate hearing Wednesday, referring to Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse:
“As long as your life is being made possible by the people in the fossil fuel industry, I think you should be grateful, and I think it is a crime — a moral crime — that you are damning anyone by association,” “I wish Sen. Whitehouse were here because what he is doing to the free speech of those companies and anyone associated with them is unconstitutional and I think he should apologize or resign,”
____________
Epstein – all thumps up!

Coach Springer
April 15, 2016 5:24 am

Sounds like self defense will be going along with speech.
One other thing, the phrase “A federal judge found” means a lot less than Whitehouse thinks it does. In terms of who the activist on the bench is, which judge hears it next, and in terms of what actually is. And a lot less than it should mean in terms of the degradation of the courts via partisanship and judicial integrity.

April 15, 2016 5:44 am

Go to YouTube and check out Alex Epstein standing in he middle of the NYC climate March; absolutely brilliant.

CaligulaJones
April 15, 2016 6:26 am

New definition of Boxer: “term limits, obvious reason for”.

Kevin Kilty
Reply to  CaligulaJones
April 15, 2016 8:52 am

She provides a good argument for a qualifying exam for public office.

CaligulaJones
Reply to  Kevin Kilty
April 15, 2016 9:27 am

Oh NO, not THAT!

April 15, 2016 1:13 pm

In his congressional testimony video we see Alex Epstein telling Senator Boxer that he, as a philosopher, can teach her to think more clearly on energy, fossil fuels and the climate.
In her career to date, Boxer thinking clearly would have been a fatal liability to her well known ideology that was used in all her political activities.
Her version of the so-called ‘democratic’ ideology and thinking clearly are fundamentally incompatible.
John

Louis
April 16, 2016 1:17 am

“Their activities are often compared to those of Big Tobacco denying the health dangers of smoking,” he wrote. “Big Tobacco’s denial scheme was ultimately found by a federal judge to have amounted to a racketeering enterprise.”
So what is the take-away from that analogy with Big Tobacco? Aren’t they still selling harmful tobacco products to any adult who wants to buy them? The only difference now is that their products are more expensive because the government, like the mob, is extorting “protection” money from them in return for letting them remain in business. Is that what Sen. Whitehouse and his friends plan to do with fossil-fuel companies, extort them for a share of the profits in exchange for letting them stay in business? That would allow politicians to redistribute wealth to buy votes and line the pockets of their cronies, but how does it stop climate change?

Reed Coray
April 16, 2016 8:59 am

Among the may sure paths to failure there are two that stand out: (1) try to please everybody, and (2) try to get Senator Boxer to think.

April 22, 2016 10:45 am

“The Climate Industrial Complex and their allies are funding a massive and sophisticated campaign to mislead the American people about the environmental harm caused by a beneficial trace gas”
There… Fixed it for ya.