New GOP Stance On All Things Climate: "We're Not Scientists"

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“Listen, I’m not qualified to debate the science over climate change,” Boehner told reporters when asked about the science behind climate change. “But I am astute to understand that every proposal that has come out of this administration to deal with climate change involves hurting our economy and killing American jobs.”

Similarly, Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott has offered the response “I am not a scientist” on multiple occasions when the topic has come up lately. Even the conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, who have put big money into fighting President Barack Obama’s energy and climate policies, disclaimed any pretense at scientific know-how when wealthy climate activist Tom Steyer challenged them to a debate on climate change.

“We are not experts on climate change,” Koch spokeswoman Melissa Cohlmia said in an email to The Wichita Eagle this month. She added, “The debate should take place among the scientific community, examining all points of view and void of politics, personal attacks and partisan agendas.”

It’s a new twist on a strategy some Republican leaders adopted last year, in which they sought to make jobs and the economy their main staging ground for attacking Obama’s climate agenda. Of course, some conservatives still scoff at the consensus among mainstream climate scientists that the Earth is warming, in large part because of human causes, and that potentially devastating consequences await. The best known may be Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who wrote a book branding the whole idea a “hoax” and a “conspiracy.” But House Science Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) also dove into the issue at a hearing Thursday, arguing that the debate on climate science is “not settled.”

“The president says there is no debate,” Smith said. “Actually, the debate has just begun.”

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http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/republicans-climate-change-science-107234.html?hp=l6