Florida Sen. Marco Rubio held a town hall meeting in his home state last night where he fielded a question on sea level rise, clean energy, and climate change.
“I do want to lead the world in every energy resource. I want us to fully utilize oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear energy, wind, solar, biofuels. I want to lead in all of them. I want the U.S. to be number one in every source of energy, have the most diverse portfolio possible, and allow the market to choose which one makes sense,” Rubio said.
“Innovation and technology is already basically driving us in the direction that people concerned about sea level rise want us to go. My only argument is allow the market to drive it, not government mandates,” Rubio added to applause.
Moderator Chuck Todd continued the line of questioning by asking “where are you on climate change?”
“First of all, the climate’s always changing. This notion that the climate used to be the same for a thousand years and now it’s different, climate’s always changing. What man’s contribution is to it? People are arguing about it all the time… Most scientists say man has contributed to it. They can’t agree at what percentage. But I can tell you this: none of the laws they want me to pass would do anything about it,” he said.
“But you believe it is still your responsibility to deal with it?” Todd followed up.
“Well, look, if you’ve got flooding in Miami Beach, you gotta deal with it,” Rubio responded, concluding with a discussion of coastal development and local mitigation issues.
The four remaining GOP candidates debate tonight in Miami.