Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) has been a member of the United States Senate since his election in 2014. Prior to his election he held no positions in public office. Sasse is a member of the Committee on Finance, the Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on Intelligence, and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
Ben Sasse and Climate Change
Shortly after taking office, Ben Sasse voted against an Amendment to the Keystone XL Pipeline Removal Act. The Act stated in its text that climate change is “real and not a hoax”. The full text of the amendment can be found on S267 of this article of the Congressional Record.
In 2018, after the release of the National Climate Assessment Report which stated that natural disasters in the U.S. are worsening, Sasse admitted on a Fox News Sunday interview that humans have some involvement in global climate change. However, he was quick to condemn climate “alarmists”, saying “you don’t hear a lot of them offering constructive, innovative solutions for the future, it’s usually just a lot of alarmism”. In the same interview, he stated that pulling out of the Paris Agreement was wise, saying “things like the Paris climate accords tend to be more binding on us than on other nations,” he said. “So that’s not good for the U.S. consumer and it’s not a long-term solution. But conversations like that are certainly important going forward.”
On his League of Conservation Voters scorecard, Benjamin Sasse has a 2% lifetime score and a 0% score for the year 2019. He is running for reelection for the U.S. Senate in 2020.
Ben Sasse and Friends
In late 2019, President Trump took to twitter and endorsed Ben Sasse’s reelection. President Trump’s extensive history of climate change denial can be reviewed in this article from the Atlantic.
Sasse’s largest contributing group has been Club For Growth, a conservative organization that opposes government action against climate change, and is one of the many organizations that supported President Trump’s decision to exit the Paris Agreement. Between 2015 and 2020, Club For Growth has contributed a total of $72,001 to Ben Sasse’s campaign.
See Also
Sen. Dan Sullivan
Sen. Tom Cotton
Climate of Denial