March 23, 2016 02:04 PM UTC

Colorado Senate Climate Change Denialism, Because Of Course

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• by: Colorado Pols

We wanted to be sure this report from the Colorado Independent’s Kelsey Ray got noted for the record, and today’s freak Front Range blizzard makes a fun backdrop:

Republican-sponsored SB 157 would suspend all Colorado action toward implementing the CPP indefinitely, unless the Court lifts its stay and approves the plan…

“If part of the Clean Power Plan is implemented, we don’t want to be left behind,” said Taryn Finnessey of the Colorado Water Conservation Board, who authored the state’s climate plan.

“It would absolutely put us behind the curve,” agreed Becky Long, a lobbyist for the environmental advocacy group Conservation Colorado.

But the bill asserts Colorado simply doesn’t have the right to keep working toward the stayed plan’s goals.

In the absence of a federal mandate like the Clean Power Plan, the bill claims, “no legal state authority exists for any agency of the state” to keep working on a state plan related to power plant CO2 emissions.

That’s hooey, of course, the state is free to pursue whatever plan it likes even if the federal government’s authority to do it is questioned. As we’ve noted previously, Colorado was/is well ahead of the curve in progress toward the basic goals of the Clean Power Plan, and the decision by our state’s GOP Attorney General to sue has created a very public split with Gov. John Hickenlooper, who supports the plan as a logical extension of what the state is already doing.

But again, that’s the conversation grownups want to have about the Clean Power Plan.

In the GOP-controlled Colorado Senate, they don’t have many of those.

In his testimony, [Sen. John] Cooke said, “The bill today isn’t about the myth of man-made climate change.” [Pols emphasis]

Unfortunately you can’t have a grownup discussion of the objectives and merits of the Clean Power Plan with the Senate GOP, because they refuse to acknowledge there’s a problem with human emissions and climate change at all. Even if this bill doesn’t directly address the underlying purpose of the Clean Power Plan, everybody knows that’s what this debate is really all about.

And make no mistake, when a slightly incredulous Sen. Matt Jones asked Cooke a moment later if he really believes “man made climate change is a myth,” Cooke made sure everybody knew that wasn’t a misquote.

With new science and polling demonstrating both the urgent reality and public acceptance of human-caused global climate change, there’s going to come a point when this kind of rank ignorance will be disqualifying from mainstream politics, much like Holocaust denial became after Simon Wiesenthal or anti-LGBT bigotry increasingly is today.

But as you can see, at least in the Colorado Senate, we’re not there yet.