Opposition to Climate Action in the Fourth Republican Presidential Debate on Business

While eight candidates (Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FLA., Sen Ted Cruz, R-TEXAS, Sen Rand Paul, R-KY, Gov. John R. Kasich, R-Ohio, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, Former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-FLA, Dr Ben Carson) are seeking the Republican nomination for President of the United States, only Rand Paul and Jeb Bush commented on climate change and clean energy in the Fox Business Network debate in Milwaukee on Tuesday November 10th. The moderators were Gerald Baker, Editor-In-Chief, Wall Street Journal, Neil Cavuto, Fox Business Network Anchor, and Maria Bartiromo, Fox Business Anchor. Here are some climate and energy excerpts from the debate:

BARTIROMO: Senator Paul, you were one of 15 republicans to vote for an amendment which states that human activity contributed to climate change. President Obama has announced an aggressive plan to cut carbon emissions. At the same time, energy production in America has boomed. Is it possible to continue this boom, and move toward energy self-sufficiency, while at the same time pursuing a meaningful climate change program?

PAUL: The first thing I would do as president is repeal the regulations that are hampering our energy that the President has put in place.

(APPLAUSE)

PAUL: Including the Clean Power Act. While I do think that man may have a role in our climate, I think nature also has a role. The planet’s 4.5 billion years old, we’ve been through geologic age after geologic age. We’ve had times when the temperatures been warmer, we’ve had times when the temperatures been colder. We’ve had times when the carbon in the atmosphere’s been higher. So, I think before we — we need to look before we leap.

President’s often fond of saying he wants a balance solution, but, really we do need to balance both keeping the environment clean, and we will have some rules for that. We got to balance that with the economy.

He’s devastated my state. I say the President’s not only destroying Kentucky, he’s destroying the democrat party down there because nobody wants to associate with him. So, what we really need is somebody that understands that we do need energy of all forms, and that means we will have solar, and wind, and hydro, but we will still have coal, and we still will have natural gas. And, we’ve got to have an all of the above policy.

But, it would be a mistake to shut down all of our industries in the coal fields, and shut down the coal power plants. If we did so we’re going to have a day where we wake up and some of our big cities are either very cold, or very hot. So, I think it’s a big danger, and we shouldn’t do it. And, what we should do is say we want all of the above…

PAUL: We want to free up the energy sector, and let people produce, let them drill, let them explore.

BUSH: We’ve had a 10 percent reduction in carbon emissions, and it isn’t because of Solyndra. It isn’t because of the central planners in Washington D.C. It’s because we’ve had a great American success story, the explosion of natural gas.

Taking two existing technologies, and applying it through innovation has created lower carbon emissions, lower energy costs — 40 percent of all the economic activity in the age of Obama has come from the energy sector, and Hillary Clinton wants to suppress that. We — I think we ought to be expanding this. High growth is the path to lower carbon, and more jobs.

I know for a fact, as Governor of the State of Florida, we created the largest land purchasing programs, and environment clean-up programs because we had a growing economy. Our revenues were growing at 4.4 percent. It allowed for resources to be able to protect the natural system.