Abby L. Harvey
GHG Daily
2/2/2016
Ardent climate change denier Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Monday evening won the Republican Iowa Caucus, the starting gun of primary season. Cruz, who has taken to referring to environmentalists as “global warming alarmists,” took 28 percent of the vote, beating out Donald Trump at 24 percent and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) at 23 percent; the remaining 25 percent of the votes were spread over the rest of the vast Republican field. Reports indicate that more than 180,000 Iowans voted in the Republican Caucus.
“Tonight, the state of Iowa has spoken. Iowa has sent notice that the Republican nominee for the next president of the United States will not be chosen by the media. Will not be chosen by the Washington establishment. Will not be chosen by the lobbyists,” Cruz said in a brief victory speech.
Cruz, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness, asserted during a December hearing that satellite data shows there has been no global warming for 18 years, a claim he has touted for several months that earned him a “Mostly False” grade from PolitiFact in March. The satellite data is questioned in part because it starts its measurement in 1998, a year in which the world experienced a very large El Nino event that gives the data an unreasonably high baseline temperature.
Cruz’s fight against “climate change alarmism” goes farther back. In October 2015, he co-sponsored a Congressional Review Act resolution of congressional disapproval against the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, the first ever carbon emissions standards placed on the nation’s coal fleet.
In February 2015, Cruz voted against an amendment that stated that “it is the sense of Congress that climate change is real, and human activity contributes to climate change.” The amendment failed and Cruz, in turn, voted in favor of the associated bill, which would have approved the Keystone XL Pipeline. It was later vetoed by the president.
The Republican field was thinned by one on caucus night with former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee ending his campaign after receiving 1.8 percent of the vote. Huckabee has also stated publicly that he does not believe the science behind climate is settled.
On the Democratic end of the caucus, the most outspoken environmentalist in the campaign threw in his towel while votes were being counted. Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley closed the night with less than 1 percent of the vote. O’Malley campaigned on a pledge to transition the country to entirely renewable energy generation by 2050, regularly challenging his opponents to do the same and criticizing the current administration’s more inclusive “all-of-the-above” energy strategy.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the Democratic Caucus by a hair, taking 49.9 percent of the vote to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at 49.3 percent. Both candidates acknowledge climate change and have expressed a need to address the issue.
The next primary will be held Feb. 9 in New Hampshire.
