Heb Bush & The Steaming Mound Of Bullshit That Is His "Stance" On Climate Science, Policy

[hatrack]

EDIT

Bush was asked about climate change at a house party last week and sketched out his position. It is roughly as follows:

1. The climate is changing, but we don't know why. "I don't think the science is clear of what percentage is man-made and what percentage is natural. It's convoluted," he said.

2. It is "arrogant" to claim human responsibility for climate change has been determined. "For the people to say the science is decided on this is really arrogant, to be honest with you," he said. "It's this intellectual arrogance that now you can't have a conversation about it, even."

3. Climate change is not a high priority, but we should do something about it. "The climate is changing. We need to adapt to that reality," he said. "I don't think it's the highest priority. I don't think we should ignore it, either."

4. We shouldn't solve climate change Obama's way. "The president's approach is, effectively, reduce economic activity to lower our carbon footprint," he said. "That's not what he says, of course, but that's the result of his policies."

5. Instead, we should subsidize fracking. Rather than focusing on carbon emissions, Bush said, the federal government should provide more incentives for lower carbon-producing forms of energy, like hydraulic fracking and horizontal drilling.

EDIT

Jeb Bush is positioning himself as the "moderate" in the GOP field, based on the longstanding assumption that the median voter is toward the center and must be captured for any chance of general-election victory. (Ted Cruz and Scott Walker, by contrast, are basing their candidacies on the premise that offering a clear contrast as an unapologetic conservative can yield a national majority, which is probably wrong.) Presenting as a moderate in today's GOP elections is no easy task, because a) the most active primary voters are the party's least moderate, and b) Bush endorses roughly the same (increasingly radical) economic policies as the rest of the candidates. If he didn't, he wouldn't get a Koch audition. So he has to choose his heresies carefully.

Climate change might seem like a good candidate. The GOP's unanimous climate change denial, which has held firm since 2010, is beginning to fracture under pressure. Establishment conservatives have been calling on GOP candidates and elected officials to tone down the science denialism, which puts the party at odds with every demographic group except Tea Party Republicans and makes them look backwards and cranky. Certainly journalists are hungry for heretics on this subject. The slightest glimmer of sanity on climate change by a Republican is celebrated as breaking news; witness coverage of Chris Christie's bold "climate change is real, but we shouldn't do anything about it" stance (which is unchanged from at least 2011). In recent months, Slate's Eric Holthaus has written stories calling Bob Inglis (a Republican who lost his House seat to a Tea Party challenger in part because he supported a carbon tax) America's "best hope for near-term climate action" and Lindsey Graham (whose chance of winning the GOP primary is, to put it gently, remote) "uniquely qualified to lead our country to a brighter, cleaner future."

EDIT

http://www.vox.com/2015/5/26/8654265/jeb-bush-climate-change

[onecaliberal]

1. The best example of people that are literally willing

To trade human lives for Money. Putting taxpayers on the hook for untold billions in storm damage from devastating storms that are getting worse.