Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul believes man and nature play a role in climate change, but thinks more work needs to be done to deregulate the energy sector, including fossil fuels.
Paul was one of 15 Republican senators to sign a resolution supporting the statement that humans play a role in climate change and reiterated that belief at the fourth Republican presidential primary debate Tuesday. He said he would encourage development of energy in “all forms.”
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“We need solar and wind and hydro, but we also need coal and we still need natural gas,” Paul said.
Paul joined former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in calling for the repeal of the Clean Power Plan, Obama’s signature environmental regulation that would limit carbon emissions from new and existing power plants.
Paul said regulation is hurting Obama’s party in his home state of Kentucky, where a Republican was recently elected governor. He called over-regulating the energy sector of the economy “a big danger.”
“We want all of the above, we want to free up the energy sector and we need to let them drill and let them explore,” Paul said.
Bush jumped on to Paul’s answer and agreed with the Kentucky senator, pointing out that carbon dioxide emissions have dropped in the last 10 years. Bush said that was the result of private companies innovating clean energy technology.
“It isn’t because of Solyndra,” Bush said, trotting out an old talking point of Mitt Romney from the 2012 election slamming Obama on investments the federal government made in green companies early in his administration.
“It isn’t because of the central planners in Washington, D.C. It’s because we have a great American success story,” Bush added.
Bush said earlier in the debate that he would repeal both the Clean Power Plan and the Waters of the United States rule. He also hit former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for taking years to make up her mind on the Keystone XL pipeline.
He said companies in Florida capitalized on a friendly business climate in order to expand their operations creating clean energy technology, and that’s paid off.
“We ought to be expanding this. High growth is the path to low carbon and more jobs,” Bush said.
