Answering the call of a group of Florida mayors, moderators at Thursday evening’s Republican presidential debate in Miami posed the candidates with a question on climate change.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) fielded a question pitched by Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado regarding whether, as president, he would acknowledge the scientific consensus about climate change and do something about it.
“There’s never been a time when the climate has not changed. I think the fundamental question for a policymaker is, is the climate changing because of something we are doing and if so, is there a law you can pass to fix it?” Rubio answered, only for moderator Jake Tapper of CNN to specify that the scientific consensus is that man does in fact contribute to climate change.
Rubio doubled down on a previous statement that regardless of what causes climate change, there is not “a law that we can pass in Washington to change the weather, there’s no such thing.”
The senator further said the kind of laws environmental groups would like to see passed would have no impact on the environment. “China is still going to be polluting, and India is still going to be polluting at historic levels. So, I am in favor of a clean environment,” Rubio said. “I want this to be a safe and clean place, but these laws some people are asking us to pass will do nothing for the environment and they will hurt and devastate our economy.”
Ohio Gov. John Kasich also took a stab at the question, presenting a much more moderate answer: “I do believe we contribute to climate change, but I don’t think it has to be either you’re for some environmentally stringent rules, or you’re not going to have any jobs. The fact is, you can have both.”
Kasich added that the way to achieve a balance between economic growth and environmental action is a diversified energy mix. “We want all the sources of energy. We want to dig coal, but we want to clean it when we burn it. We believe in natural gas. We believe in nuclear power. And you know what else I believe in? I happen to believe in solar energy, wind energy, efficiency, renewables matter,” the governor said.
The question was not put to the other candidates, front-runner Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and they did not attempt to answer it during the debate.
