Appearing at the No Labels Problem Solvers Convention in Manchester, NH, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham asked the audience of undecided voters: “How many of you here believe climate change is real?” In response to applause, Graham declared, “I do too.”
“So here’s the trade off,” Graham explained. “For those of you who believe climate change is real, you’re going to have to deal with a guy like me who will push a lower carbon economy over time in a business friendly way. The great trade off is energy producers and environmentalists in a room trying to find over a 50-year period a way to go to a lower carbon economy, in the meantime responsibly exploring for fossil fuels that we own and trying to create alternative energy in every sector of the economy.”
Graham addressed the partisan divide on the issue. “It is to me, folks, a problem that needs to be solved, not a religion. To my friends on the left who are making this a religion, you’re making a mistake. To my friends on the right who deny the science, tell me why.”
“I’m not a scientist. I made a D in science,” he joked. “And when 90 percent of climatologists tells you it’s real, who am I to tell them they don’t know what they are talking about?”
“The trade off is… more nuclear power because it’s a good job creating method of energy and is non-emitting. Exploring for oil and gas in a reasonable way. Pushing low carbon technologies, having the government involved until we can get a foothold on a lower carbon alternative energy economy. And setting carbon targets that would give America clean water and clean air.”
Graham has long been vocal about the urgent need to address climate change.