CLIMATE CHANGE/ENERGY/TRUMP PEOPLE/RICK PERRY: “Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Monday [6-19-17] denied that man-made carbon dioxide emissions are the primary cause of climate change.
Asked in an interview on CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ whether he believed that carbon dioxide was ‘the primary control knob for the temperature of the Earth and for climate,’ Perry said that ‘No, most likely the primary control knob is the ocean waters and this environment that we live in.’
Perry added that ‘the fact is this shouldn’t be a debate about, *Is the climate changing, is man having an effect on it?* Yeah, we are. The question should be just how much, and what are the policy changes that we need to make to effect that?’
Perry’s comments fall in line with what Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt said in a March interview on the program. Pruitt said then that he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming.
Both men’s views contradict the conclusions of scientists at Pruitt’s own EPA as well as NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.”
-Steven Mufson, “Rick Perry just denied that humans are the main cause of climate change,” The Washington Post online, June 19, 2017 02:40pm