Graves (R-LA) Wants To "Redefine" Climate; Led Defense Of Big Oil Damages To His Melting Home State

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As a staffer for former Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), former Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), and Senate committees, and as coastal adviser to ex-Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R), Graves became acutely aware of the effects that coastal erosion, flooding, and other consequences of climate change on the people and environment of his state.

In a 2014 interview in The Baton Rouge Advocate, Graves walked the line between acknowledging the role of climate change and taking action on greenhouse gases. “To say that it’s not happening while we’re watching it is not in the best interest of the people we’re supposed to be representing,” he said. But Graves also told The Advocate that scientific uncertainty remains on the role that humans play in rising temperatures. He said as much in a CNN interview last November: “I think that there’s both a biogenic or natural impact and I think that there’s also a man-made impact that is contributing and I do think that we should be looking at it holistically.”

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But his coastal legacy is also marked with a public effort to kill a legal challenge against 97 oil, gas, and pipeline companies for tunneling through the state’s delicate coastal lands and contributing to erosion. The suit was ultimately thrown out of federal court and unsuccessful in its Supreme Court bid. “He did everything he possibly could to destroy the lawsuit,” said John Barry, a former board member of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East who led the lawsuit against the oil companies.

Since his election to Congress, Graves has reserved his ire for the Army Corps of Engineers, an agency who he says has harmed the ecosystem through decades of building dams and levees.

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https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/louisiana-republican-seeks-to-redefine-climate-change-for-gop