Epstein to Senate: “[Your climate] actions will cause billions to suffer”

 

Now this is delightful.

Alex Epstein, who you will have read about many times here at NOT PC, appeared in front of the US Senate yesterday to give testimony on behalf of fossil fuels, to explain to them that “[your climate] actions will cause billions to suffer”  …

He took ‘questions’ …

… and invited at least one Senator to resign ...

 

There were a few reports:

- Epstein’s opening testimony explaining how many Senators are making a catastrophic mistake by pushing for fossil fuel restrictions when we should be liberating all forms of energy—calls on them to cast aside politics, stop taking actions that will cause billions of people to suffer unnecessarily.
- Epstein explains why heat-related deaths go down, not up, even with (mild) temperature rises; key to climate safety is the climate protection provided by industrial civilization (e.g., air conditioning), not a degree or two of temperature.
- Senator Boxer asks Epstein if he is a scientist; he replies that he is a philosopher. Boxer tries to dismiss, but Epstein quickly explains to Barbara Boxer why she and the Senate need philosophy to think clearly about energy and environmental policy. Crowd laughs at Boxer. Boxer repeatedly claims a philosopher is irrelevant to a discussion that involves science, then calls upon a reverend to enlighten everyone.
- Senator Boxer goes on a rant committing all the fallacies Epstein warned against, calls his facts made up even though literature she has been given cites primary sources.
- No Democrats ask Epstein another question, even a loaded, five-second one like Boxer did.
- Senator Whitehouse addresses nothing Epstein says, commits all the fallacies Epstein warned against, asks no questions, and leaves.
- Epstein explains that he is against the loss of coal jobs, not because they are jobs, but because coal is a life-enhancing product that is being legislated, not competed, out of existence. Epstein praises the fossil fuel industry, proudly associates himself with it, and castigates ungrateful Senators who are being kept alive by that industry and yet trying to destroy it. He also call for Senator Whitehouse’s resignation for his unconstitutional attacks on fossil fuel companies’ free speech.
- Other Democratic Senators address nothing Epstein says, except to blast "individualism" as un-American (!) ask him no questions. Lesson learned from Boxer's tough day at the office?
- Epstein on the domestic devastation of higher energy prices and the domestic opportunity of energy freedom.
- Epstein on how philosophy can help us think big-picture about the intersection of economic and environmental issues.

And…

Senator Boxer admonishes Alex because she doesn't want to be "lectured on science by a philosopher." To which, he replies he is there to help her think more clearly. She responds that she doesn't need any help thinking clearly.
    Then, she almost immediately moves to advising a priest on the panel to get advice from a minister not in attendance (who I presume agrees with her) to help correct his climate change position, to which he replies that this minister is also not a scientist.
    The irony is too rich.

Full link here.