Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who served as President George W. Bush’s first EPA Administrator, said in an op-ed Republicans need to “do something” about climate change and that “it’s time to hold the Republican party to higher standard.”
“Because climate change has become needlessly partisan, I am always heartened when a fellow Republican recognizes the seriousness of the issue. More elected Republicans are now publicly acknowledging the truth: climate change is real and humans are the leading cause of it,” she wrote while also criticizing those who recently voted for Rep. Steve Scalise’s anti-carbon tax resolution without offering “suggestions of their own” on how to deal with climate change.
“Republicans can stand for a clean environment and market principles. But we can’t stand on the sidelines. We must enter this debate with our own ideas, and push for policies that cut the pollution intensifying havoc across our country and world. And token cuts are not enough, we must reduce emissions and move toward clean energy as fast as the science of climate change demands,” she wrote.