Steve Scalise (R-LA, 1st District) is a U.S. representative for Louisiana’s first congressional district. The republican has served as a Louisiana representative since 2008, and has served as the majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives since being elected in 2014.
In June of 2019, Scalise was asked by CBS about his official stance on climate change, something that has been vague in the past. More particularly, Scalise was confronted on the issues that his home state of Louisiana faced in regards to climate change and rising sea levels. Extreme weather patterns such as floods and hurricanes are of much concern, as is the loss of coastline to the rising Gulf of Mexico.
When asked by CBS co-anchor Tony Dokoupil about climate research in the state of Louisiana by the Environmental Defense Fund that points to about “one football field per hour” being lost to the rising Gulf of Mexico, Scalise was quick to discredit man-made climate change, and claimed that coastal erosion was to blame. When directly confronted with the issue of rising temperatures, Scalise said “first of all, we know that the earth’s temperature changes — it goes up and down.”
Scalise also made a claim in favor of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in response to the study regarding Louisiana’s loss of coastal land. “Let me tell you what we’re doing — we’re actually taking revenues from drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and using that to rebuild land to rebuild our coast.” Rather than oppose the man-made causation of environmental issues in Louisiana, Scalise supports the rebuilding of his states dwindling coast with the funds from the fossil fuel extraction that is causing the sea levels to rise in the first place.
Steve Scalise and Friends:
Kay C. James: President of the Heritage Foundation, wrote an article with Scalise in opposition to the Green New Deal
Bobby Jindal: Former governor of Louisiana
Climate of Denial