In the GOP's House, God won't allow global warming?

By Stephen Stromberg

Just how radical is the Republican House going to be? Part of that depends on the chamber's new committee chairmen. I'm already worried about what Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) might do as the House's chief inquisitor, particularly when it comes to his promise to "investigate"

climate science. Now Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) is campaigning to chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee next year. He's been on the committee since 1997, and he says he's "uniquely qualified" for the job. For example, the Toronto Star reports, Shimkus claimed in 2009 that we don't have to worry about global warming because God promised not to destroy the Earth. No -- really.

First, he noted God's post-Flood promise to Noah in Genesis 8:21-22. "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though all inclinations of his heart are evil from childhood and never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done. "As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease." "I believe that's the infallible word of God, and that's the way it's going to be for his creation," Shimkus said. Then he quoted Matthew 24:31. "And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of the heavens to the other." "The Earth will end only when God declares it's time to be over. Man will not destroy this Earth. This Earth will not be destroyed by a flood," Shimkus asserted. "I do believe that God's word is infallible, unchanging, perfect."

Gee, I guess we didn't really need to worry about that thermonuclear war thing for all those years, either, since God would certainly have swooped in, Dr. Manhattan style, to stop the nukes from incinerating the Earth.

So when Shimkus says he's uniquely qualified to chair the committee responsible for writing America's energy policies, he means in the way that Karl Marx would have been uniquely qualified to lead a commission on market deregulation, or in the way that Agamemnon would have been uniquely qualified to give parenting advice.



The Washington Independent's Andrew Restuccia has more worrying global warming quotes from Shimkus here, and he argues that some of the others seeking the chairmanship have questionable records on climate change, too. All of this comes on top of news this week that Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) wants to maintain the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming -- along with its subpoena power -- but devote it to hounding the Environmental Protection Agency in the next Congress.

In other words, the official rhetoric on climate policy could be even more distorted than the last time the GOP held the House, and the practical consequences -- either in necessary actions not taken or in efforts to undermine the Obama administration's work to cut back on carbon emissions -- are certainly more alarming.