This week in climate change, with the GOP South Carolina primary stage set for tomorrow, candidates quickly vied for position in the Palmetto State, with the pool slightly smaller. Former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore shuttered his campaign after receiving only 145 combined votes in the early contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.
“Climate change is a reality,” the Gilmore’s [former] campaign website read. “But the debate on whether it is caused by man the anthropogenic climate change we hear about every day is very far from over.”
At the GOP debate in Greenville, SC, while the subjects of climate change and clean energy did not arise, our friends at Citizens for Energy Solutions ran the following TV ad, which highlights Gov. Nikki Haley’s leadership on renewable energy.
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush continued to make his case and addressed a question on clean energy at the Faith and Family Forum at Bob Jones University.
“I do think that we have a need to protect the natural systems and the critters,” Bush said. “We are guided by our faith to do that. It’s an important value for people, particularly of the Christian faith but I’m sure other faiths feel duty bound to do the same.”
“The climate’s changing. Man has some impact. I think most people would agree with that.” The solution, Bush explained to applause: “Let the markets work. Simplify the tax code. Stop trying to pick winners and losers. There’s someone in a garage somewhere in Greenville that has a better chance of disrupting the order of things as it relates to energy than a bureaucrat inside the Department of Energy.”
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who placed second in the New Hampshire primary last week, defended his conservative credentials to South Carolina voters. On the issue of climate change, Kasich posed a rhetorical question: “Am I not a conservative because I think human beings affect the climate? I’m for the environment.”
Kasich’s remark was met with applause from the audience. Like Bush, the governor is on the record supporting free enterprise solutions to climate change.