W. Va. Congressman At It Again: Tries To Block Federal Agencies From Factoring in Climate Change

David McKinley is at it again.

David McKinley seems to
think if we pretend something
doesn't exist then, POOF! it's gone. 

 
He's the  U.S. Representative from West Virginia who proposed a measure that would    stop the Department of Defense from considering climate change while making its strategic plans.

After all, if climate change ultimately causes conflicts, refugee crises and unstable governments, why should the Department of Defense be ready for it? Who cares if such things threaten U.S. security?

As a March Pentagon report states, "poverty, environmental degradation, political instability and social tensions ... can enable terrorist activity and other forms of violence."

I guess if we pretend climate change doesn't exist, and that it would never cause any problems, we can just ignore it, right?

Now, McKinley has promoted a bill that would block two key U.S. government agencies from factoring climate change into their decisions, according to the Charleston, (W.Va) Gazette.

He seems to think that if he blocks U.S. agencies from gathering the facts about issues like climate change, the problem will go away.

McKinley's latest masterpiece would prohibit the U.S. Department of Energy and the Army Corps of Engineers from using funds to "design, implement, administer or carry out specified assessments regarding climate change."

He's continuing his rich tack of using fact-free political ideology to say government agencies shouldn't plan for climate change because that very idea is political ideology.

Don't believe me? I'll quote McKinley:  "With all the unrest around the (world) why should Congress divert funds from the mssion of our military and national security to support a political ideology?"

Yeah, like the sea level is rising a bit and the weather is getting more erratic because Mother Nature is a flaming liberal who wants to stick it to conservative Republicans.

Some conservatives say they're not scientists, so they won't try to understand what climate scientists are saying. I'm not a scientist, either, but when I don't know about something and need to find out, I go to the experts.

When I had a recent illness, I went to a doctor who specializes in the problem I had, and I'm much better now.  Had I pretended the illness didn't exist, I would have gotten sicker and sicker until my ailment was harder if not impossible to treat.

In other words, I consultant an expert. And no, there's not some grand conspiracy among climate scientists hoaxing us on climate change. If there were such a hoax, some loudmouth would have spilled the beans right now. (And, no offense to you scientists, but there's plenty of loudmouth scientists out there.)

Luckily, the Senate, at least in its current configuration, would never pass McKinley's measures so tey wil die.

And that's good, since the Department of Energy is heavily involved in dealing with climate change, says the Charleston Gazette article.

I'm sure much of McKinley's motivation is to protect the coal industry in West Virginia. I don't like to see coal miners lose their jobs, either. But maybe it's time to spend government time and energy re-training them for better, safer jobs and stop just making things up to suit your political viewpoint on climate change.

Of course, maybe if McKinley stops blowing hot air, global warming might slow a bit.