'I do believe that God said the Earth would not be destroyed by a flood,' Shimkus said. Shimkus cites Genesis on climate

Rep. John Shimkus is standing by a controversial comment that global warming isn't something to worry about because God said he wouldn't destroy the Earth after Noah's flood.

The Illinois Republican running for the powerful perch atop the House Energy and Commerce Committee told POLITICO on Wednesday that his understanding of the Bible reaffirms his belief that government shouldn't be in the business of trying to address rising greenhouse gas emissions.


"I do believe in the Bible as the final word of God," Shimkus said. "And I do believe that God said the Earth would not be destroyed by a flood.

“Now, do I believe in climate change? In my trip to Greenland, the answer is yes. The climate is changing,” he added. “The question is more about the costs and benefits and trying to spend taxpayer dollars on something that you cannot stop versus the changes that have been occurring forever. That's the real debate."

Shimkus drew snickers from the left in March 2009 when he quoted an exchange between God and Noah in Genesis during a subcommittee hearing on adaptation policies for dealing with climate change. His critics have rehashed the congressman's remarks now that he's entered the internal GOP campaign to take charge of the House panel with direct oversight of global warming and other environmental and energy policy issues.

"I'm glad that John Shimkus can sleep at night, faithful that that God's word is 'infallible, unchanging, perfect,'" Salon blogger Andrew Leonard wrote on Wednesday. "But for those of us who are less confident in humanity's ability to keep from massively screwing up, the thought that the Bible will be determining government energy policy is massively ulcer inducing."

Steve Tomaszewski, a Shimkus spokesman, said the congressman cited the Bible during the hearing because two ordained ministers testifying on the panel included their own Bible passages as part of their prepared remarks.

Shimkus is one of four Republicans seeking the Energy and Commerce gavel — Joe Barton, Fred Upton and Cliff Stearns are the others — in what has become an increasingly nasty campaign. Barton is seeking a waiver from GOP leaders he’s unlikely to get, and he and other conservatives are attacking Upton for not being conservative enough. Shimkus would not have that problem, and at the every least he is well-situated for a subcommittee chairmanship.

Echoing Upton, Stearns and Barton, Shimkus pledged to aggressively pursue repeal and oversight of the health reform law, a significant piece of which falls under the Energy and Commerce Committee’s jurisdiction.

“The secretary of Health and Human Services has not appeared before a [House] committee since April of 2009. That should shock people,” he said. “We’re going to give her a multitude of opportunities to address specific portions of this new law, and we’ll go through it with a fine-toothed comb.”

Assuming leadership schedules a vote for full repeal immediately, Shimkus said he then plans to push “simple rifle shots” to the reform law through his committee.

While full repeal of the health care law isn’t possible until there is a president in the White House who wouldn’t veto it, Republicans hope to dismantle the legislation one piece at a time through repeal of small pieces and defunding what they can.

Shimkus pointed to the 1099 tax reporting provision, which already has wide support to get repealed. “We’ll try to find a whole bunch of additional things,” he said.

On energy, oversight would be the name of the game. Shimkus said he would green-light the different House subcommittees to "really focus on science" surrounding climate change.

"Really, the focus is not going to be climate," he said. "The climate debate has, at least for two years, has ended with this election. The real focus is on energy security."

Like the other chairman candidates, Shimkus suggested a wide-ranging policy agenda on energy that includes everything from coal to electric vehicles, nuclear power and natural gas. He also wants to permanently block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

"We do need to bring some certainty to the electricity markets, especially in nuclear generation," Shimkus said. "We have to send a signal to EPA [that] while we appreciate their work in keeping our environment clean, they have to be careful they don't do it at a cost of higher energy that makes us less competitive in the world markets. They're the balance there."

Jennifer Haberkorn contributed to this report.