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Former Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel offered a scathing rebuke of
President Donald Trump’s climate change policies to lawmakers on the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
But while they were there Tuesday, both men also had to tussle with the panel’s conservative firebrands
who said fears of climate change were “alarmist notions” and repeatedly challenged Kerry and Hagel on whether
they were qualified to talk about the subject.
Ranking Republican Member Jim Jordan of Ohio, harkened back to Obama administration scandals like one regarding now-bankrupt solar panel company Solyndra, calling the loan guarantee program that spurred it the “first Green New Deal.”
Republican North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows challenged Kerry’s assertion climate-related issues may be exacerbating political unrest in Syria, suggesting the former secretary was saying “droughts only started once the combustion engine” was invented. Louisiana Republican Rep. Clay Higgins at one point remarked, “I don’t believe mankind is responsible for climate change on Mars.”
And Rep. Thomas Massie questioned whether Kerry, who helped negotiate the 2015 Paris climate accords, was qualified to talk about climate science because he did not have a degree in the subject. It was “somewhat appropriate that somebody with a pseudoscience degree is here pushing pseudoscience in front of our committee today,” the Kentucky Republican said.
“Are you serious? I mean this is really a serious happening here?” Kerry replied, to laughter in the audience.
During another spirited debate with Massie later in the hearing, Kerry remarked, “Mr. Chairman, this is just not a
serious conversation.”
It appears that payback can be a bitch.[/FONT]
