By Zachary Shahan
That's right, you read the headline correctly. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina is getting censored by his own colleagues because of his clean energy, reduce greenhouse gases and carbon pollution, improve energy security message, but he is not letting up.
The Senator gave a speech this week that looks like it could have been given by Obama or Al Gore. As The State: South Carolina's Homepage stated, "U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham renewed his call Tuesday for federal controls on greenhouse gas pollution, despite continued criticism from the Republican Party's most conservative members. Graham, R-S.C., backs legislation to crack down on carbon dioxide pollution, which he said will also boost the U.S. economy and reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil."
Graham is acting like a real leader, concerned more about the future of his people and the world than the norm in the Republican party, which may come as a surprise, but isn't that what politicians (our leaders) are supposed to do?
Graham reportedly made the point that he has been censored by the Republican party because of its "misplaced priorities" regarding certain narrow interests. However, he is convinced that global warming is a major problem.
"I have come to conclude that greenhouse gases and carbon pollution is not a good thing," Graham said. "All the cars and trucks and plants that have been in existence since the Industrial Revolution, spewing out carbon day-in and day-out, will never convince me that's a good thing for your children and the future of the planet." (Of course, he meant power plants, not living plants of nature.)
He also said that if climate legislation was passed, the US EPA would come regulate greenhouse gases anyway, that the polar ice caps are melting and it is a threat to the nation and the world, and even went further to talk about the importance of new energy for national security: "Moving away from the nation's reliance on foreign oil will create more demand for other energy sources and create a new energy economy for the US. It's also good for national security, since many nations that sell oil are hostile to the US."
Wow, sounds like a hippie activist.
Graham is optimistic and also prepared for the political backlash from oil-bought politicians and their followers. "Whatever political push back I get I'm willing to accept because I know what I'm trying to do makes sense to me," Graham said. "I am convinced that reason, logic and good business sense, and good environmental policy, will trump the status quo."
That is all refreshing to hear.
Fossil Fuel
