Joseph Gerth

@Joe_Gerth

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told the Cincinnati Enquirer's editorial board on Thursday that he doesn't know if climate change is a real problem because he's "not a scientist" and that he's more interested in producing cheap energy than worrying about it.

McConnell told the editorial board that he didn't even want to talk about limiting carbon emissions because "nobody else is going to do that," he said.

"The Indians and Chinese are building coal plants, the Europeans having started off in this direction, are now importing coal, and the Australians, just a couple months ago, repealed their carbon tax, which is their version of what the EPA regulations are doing in this country," he said.

When asked what it would take to convince him that climate change is a problem, he demurred and said, "I'm not a scientist, I am interested in protecting Kentucky's economy, I'm interested in having low cost electricity."

In fact, the United Nations is on schedule to approve a new agreement on climate change next year. And while the Chinese are building new coal-fired power plants, they are also investing in alternative energy sources.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that China is also banning certain types of highly polluting coal in an effort to clean up its air.

McConnell's opponent in the Nov. 4 election, Alison Lundergan Grimes, has said that she believes man has contributed to climate change but that rather than limiting coal-fired emissions, she wants the government to focus on developing "clean coal" technology like carbon sequestration so that Kentucky can continue mining coal.

In the 50-minute interview seeking to gain the newspaper's editorial endorsement, McConnell touched on foreign policy issues, coal, health care and a variety of other issues. Grimes is scheduled to meet with the Enquirer's editorial board Oct. 14.

Grimes is scheduled to go before The Courier-Journal's editorial board Oct. 9. McConnell has not responded to the newspaper's invitation.

He disputed that the low price of natural gas has spurred job losses in Kentucky's coal fields and placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of President Barack Obama, who he has attacked more during this election than Grimes, Kentucky's secretary of state.

"Everybody I know in Eastern Kentucky is more than happy to compete with natural gas," he said. "They've been competing with natural gas for years."

On foreign policy, McConnell told the board that the United States should have left a "residual force" in Iraq, which he said might have kept the Islamic State out of the country. But while he believes it will take more than air strikes to defeat ISIS, also known as ISIL, he doesn't favor re-establishing a force in Iraq or committing U.S. ground troops to the effort.

He said terrorism "is not likely to be going away any time soon," and said it is" the biggest challenge of the 21st century, in terms of danger, physical danger to Americans."

During the interview, McConnell blamed Democrats and Obama for what he said is a dysfunctional Senate and complained that Obama has failed because he hasn't moved to the center.

He also, as he has done frequently, called the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, "a disaster everywhere."

But he said that Kentucky could keep its Kynect insurance exchange "with or without Obamacare," but he didn't say how the state would replace the federal stipends given to those who purchase insurance through the exchange, which help offset premiums.

When asked what should be done, McConnell stopped short of calling for the repeal of Obamacare, saying that Obama would likely veto such legislation. He instead, called for a piecemeal effort to dismantle parts of it that he said "are deeply, deeply unpopular" like a tax on medical devices.

Reporter Joseph Gerth can be reached at (502) 582-4702. Follow him on Twitter at @Joe_Gerth.