Taking office in 1999, Daryl Metcalfe, (R-Butler ) is a Pennsylvania state representative from southern Butler County. He currently (2021) chairs the House Environmental and Energy Resources Committee. Metcalfe was also appointed to the Climate Change Advisory Council by the Pennsylvania GOP.
On Climate Change
Metcalfe is a consistent advocate for gas drillers in his county, and he has worked to reduce regulation, kill accountability measures, and block renewable energy legislation. This same NPR article reports that Metcalfe has, “equated climate change with seasonal weather, said predictions about the dangers of climate change are fiction, and implied carbon dioxide can’t be a pollutant because plants use it as food.”
In committee meetings Metcalfe has invited testimony from noted climate change deniers, including Gregory Wrightstone who has argued that there are many benefits from rising temperatures and increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
He has posted on Facebook that the climate crisis is a thinly disguised power grab by government. He believes that, “The leftist, big government, we know better than you, nanny state, tyrant types are spreading their lies to instill fear amongst the masses in hopes of mobilizing some of them in their effort to rob us of our wealth and liberty!”
As a fan of increasing CO2 levels he often uses nonsensical arguments against climate change science. In Philly Voice article he is quoted from his Facebook page as saying: “Just to be on record,” Metcalfe begins, “I enjoy my vegetables, and plants need CO2. So I want to make sure we still have plenty of CO2 out there so we have green grass and green vegetables growing. We need CO2. We can’t eliminate all CO2. So I think we’re going to have an interesting debate for those that want to reduce something that’s actually needed by our environment.”
He is on record as opposing Gov. Tom Wolfe’s plan to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (a regional effort to reduce carbon emissions).
See Also
Rick Santorum
Climate of Denial