On a hot, 93 degree Tuesday afternoon at Georgetown University in Washington DC, President Barack Obama unveiled the nation’s first ever clear strategy for combating climate change. Encouraging his audience to remove their suit jackets as he removed his own and occasionally wiping sweat from his brown, he presented plans for responding to the threat of a warming planet. Obama tried to head his critics off at the pass, preemptively addressing the most common counter-argument: that action on climate change would be a disaster for the economy. "Now, what you'll hear from the special interests and their allies in Congress is that this will kill jobs and crush the economy, and basically end American free enterprise as we know it. And the reason I know you’ll hear those things is because that’s what they said every time America sets clear rules and better standards for our air and our water and our children's health. And every time, they've been wrong."
On a hot, 93 degree Tuesday afternoon at Georgetown University in Washington DC, President Barack Obama unveiled the nation’s first ever clear strategy for combating climate change. Encouraging his audience to remove their suit jackets as he removed his own and occasionally wiping sweat from his brown, he presented plans for responding to the threat of a warming planet.
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Obama tried to head his critics off at the pass, preemptively addressing the most common counter-argument: that action on climate change would be a disaster for the economy.
"Now, what you'll hear from the special interests and their allies in Congress is that this will kill jobs and crush the economy, and basically end American free enterprise as we know it. And the reason I know you’ll hear those things is because that’s what they said every time America sets clear rules and better standards for our air and our water and our children's health. And every time, they've been wrong."
As if on cue, the Heartland Institute immediately did just that. James M. Taylor, J.D., Senior Fellow for Environment Policy at the Heartland Institute quickly fires off his response, "The restrictions are economically punishing because they will drive up energy prices throughout the U.S. economy, which will stifle job creation and additionally drive existing businesses and jobs overseas."
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