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Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett declined to say whether she accepts the science of climate change, under questioning Kamala Harris, saying she lacked the experience to know for sure and called the issue too controversial to broach.
On Wednesday, Barrett framed the recognition of man-made climate change as a matter of politics, not science, when pressed at her confirmation hearing by the Democratic senator from California.
Barrett said Harris, the Democratic vice presidential candidate and a member of the Senate judicial committee, was trying to get her to express an opinion “on a very controversial topic of public debate, and I will not do that.”
Barrett was answering a series of questions from Harris, including whether he thought the coronavirus was infectious, whether smoking caused cancer, and whether “climate change is happening and threatening the air we breathe and the water we drink.”
The federal appeals court judge responded that she did think the coronavirus was infectious and that smoking caused cancer. However, he rejected Harris on the climate change issue for trying to “solicit an opinion” on a “public policy issue, especially one that is politically controversial.”
The exchange occurred during the committee’s hearing on Barrett’s nomination to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.
Scientists say that climate change is an established fact and that the damage is caused mainly by people burning oil, gas and coal. Climate experts, including federal scientists in the Trump administration, say increasingly fierce wildfires, hurricanes and other natural disasters point to the urgency of global warming.
President Donald Trump, a fervent promoter of the coal, oil and gas industries, routinely questions and scoffs at the science of climate change, while Democratic rival Joe Biden proposes a $ 2 trillion plan to for Americans to abandon fossil fuels to tackle the climate crisis.
The Trump administration has reversed major Obama-era efforts to reduce fossil fuel emissions from cars, trucks and power plants. Many of the administration’s public health and environmental setbacks are likely to end up before the supreme court.
On Tuesday, Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican and another committee member considering Barrett’s confirmation, also asked Barrett what he thought about a number of issues, including climate change.
“I’ve read about climate change,” Barrett replied.
“And do you have any opinions on climate change that you have thought about?” Kennedy asked.
“I’m certainly not a scientist,” Barrett replied, using a frequent refrain from more conservative Republicans on the matter. “I wouldn’t say I have strong opinions on this.”
