A New Front in the GOP's War on Science
Not satisfied with undermining the case for action on climate change, House Republicans want to crack the fundamental basis for environmental regulation itself.
By Patrick Reis
Republicans are going after environmental groups’ last, best line of defense.
The environmental lobby has long leveraged three main arguments in its fight for clean-air policies: climate science, jobs, and public health. But ever since President Obama took office, Republicans have made strong inroads against the first two arguments, turning the once solid talking points into question marks among moderates and outright liabilities among conservatives.
The connection between global warming and human activity is settled science among climatologists, but the public at large sees the issue very differently. Only 42 percent of Americans believe in human-caused global warming, down from 47 percent in 2008, according to a long-standing Pew Research Center poll. And “green jobs” have become a favorite topic of conversation for Republicans, who have been relentless in their efforts to publicize the failure of Solyndra, the solar-panel company that went bankrupt despite receiving more than $500 million in federal loan guarantees.
But while climate science and green jobs have become politicized, cancer and asthma have not, and the public health benefits of environmental regulations remain the green lobby’s most persuasive argument.
more
http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/a-new-front-in-the-gop-s-war-on-science-20130912
= new reply since forum marked as read