Tillis (R-NC) No Longer Actively Denies Science Of Global Warming, Now Says That "Climate Changes"

Gee, thanks for the update, Senator.

When Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina first ran for U.S. Senate in 2014, he gave the same one-word answer as his three competitors for the GOP nomination when asked if climate change was a fact: "No." But that was six years, five hurricanes, and one pandemic ago.

Tillis, as he runs for a second term, is now distancing himself from his past climate denial and, to some extent, from President Donald Trump, in what is turning out to be a difficult struggle to hold onto his seat against Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham. Cunningham, a former state senator, environmental entrepreneur and U.S. Army reserve lieutenant colonel who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, has led in the polls since June.

EDIT

Tillis now acknowledges anthropogenic climate change, but does not express urgency. "We have to come up with several strategies to recognize reality: climate changes," he said in a 2018 interview. "Sometimes it changes just because it has over the millenia. Sometimes it changes because of human factors." He has not backed any particular climate action strategy, and his campaign did not respond to InsideClimate News' request for details.

Last year, Tillis voted to back Trump's repeal of the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan. The League of Conservation Voters' scorecard shows just 9 percent of the votes he has cast have been pro-environmental, and FiveThirtyEight shows him voting with Trump's position 93.4 percent of the time. Tillis also was one of 20 GOP Senators who urged Trump in 2017 to exit the Paris climate accord; he has said the accord "didn't have some of the fastest growing polluters, the ones who will surpass the United States." However, the Paris accord did include commitments by all emitters that signed it, including China and India, which rank No. 1 and No. 3 in emissions.

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04092020/senate-2020-north-carolina-climate-change-election-thom-tillis-cal-cunningham