The GOP candidate in a tight Connecticut gubernatorial race said he didn’t know whether humans contributed to climate change because he’s “not an expert” on the subject.
GOP candidate Tom Foley joined the ranks of a number of other Republican politicians up for re-election, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who have side-stepped the question of whether they agree with the scientific consensus that humans exacerbate global warming, largely through burning fossil fuels.
“Everybody understands that global answers are increasing,” Foley told reporters after a Thursday debate in a video uploaded by the Connecticut Democratic Party, but he said that “from a policy point of view, it really doesn’t matter” whether humans are behind that.
The question was preceded by discussion of Hurricane Sandy, which hit the state in October 2012. While scientists avoid blaming climate change for the cause of any single extreme weather event, many say higher sea levels and warmer waters associated with climate change helped intensify Sandy.
Foley, who according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll is in a dead heat with incumbent Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy, also said in the debate that “it doesn’t really matter” whether humans are driving global temperatures higher.
Malloy slammed Foley during the debate, saying, “Of course, climate change is real. And to deny that is to deny reality.”
