Markey: Romney’s an “empty chair” on climate change

Oh really, Rep. Markey? Tell me more:

Markey jabbed Romney by recalling Clint Eastwood’s rambling speech at last week’s Republican convention, where Eastwood used an empty chair to have an imaginary chat with President Obama.

“[Romney] actually used to talk about climate change when he was the governor of Massachusetts and not make jokes about it,” Markey said at a Thursday event hosted by The Hill.

“But talking to that Governor Romney today would be like talking to an empty chair. There is no conversation you can have with him,” the Massachusetts Democrat added at the event on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention.

One step at a time here. First of all, Mitt Romney does and will engage on the issue of climate change. The eco-trendy crowd was up in arms over this money line from Romney’s RNC speech last week: “President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family,” pointing to it as in indicator that all of us toothless, science-hating, fundamentalist Republicans are dismissive and even scornful of the very idea of environmental stewardship. Hogwash. Just because Mitt Romney’s plan doesn’t include bankrupting us with more taxpayer-funded “investments” in renewable energy ventures and costly, arbitrary emissions standards, doesn’t mean that he’s being totally blasé about the possibilities of climate change.

Has anybody stopped to notice that all of the Obama administration’s piddling clean-energy projects have either failed on the business end or done jack squat to actually combat global warming on a large scale and in the long run? The best new technology that actually has helped us reduce our carbon emissions was born entirely of free enterprise and is one of the biggest things environmentalists and regulators have been fighting tooth-and-nail to thwart: Natural gas. Bam. Greenies really need to wake the heck up and realize the wealthier societies are healthier societies. Not only do wealthier people have the luxury to devote some of their time and resources to environmental awareness (or, in other words, a society’s environmental concerns tend to wane in the face of economic downturns), but a robust and prosperous society is what’s going to produce the efficiencies and innovations that will bring about real environmental progress.

Secondly, the Obama camp has been gettin’ awfully quiet-like about climate change, an issue that Barack Obama championed in 2008 and toward the beginning of his presidency. Not so much, these days. And for such an ostensibly “urgent” matter, the Democrats are certainly giving the matter pretty short shrift…

Though the 2012 Democratic Party platform declares that the “national security threat from climate change is real, urgent, and severe,” it is apparently not urgent and severe enough to merit mention by speakers at the Democratic National Convention during the past two days.

The Daily Caller reviewed the speech transcripts of the over 80 speakers who took the stage at the Time Warner Cable Arena here in Charlotte on Tuesday and Wednesday, and only one mentioned climate change — and even he only mentioned it in passing.

• Chuck Todd: The Obama administration is trying to “criminalize journalism”
• About those “doctored” Benghazi e-mails…
• White House word of the day – Irrelevant

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