Derek Schmidt’s GOP ex-boss has seen the light on climate change. Has the Kansas AG?
A strong tornado recently ripped through Andover, Kansas, destroying homes and businesses but thankfully causing few injuries. The storm was a grim reminder of the 1991 Andover tornado that took two dozen lives.
We’re praying for the community. The government must provide whatever help Andover needs to recover.
No one single weather event confirms climate change. Yet the signs of ongoing climate damage are unmistakable: Strong storms and tornadoes, yes, but also rising sea levels, melting polar ice, drought, wildfires and hotter temperatures are common. No serious scientist denies these facts.
Climate change is here.
Kansas has understood at least part of the challenge for some time. It’s one of the leading states in the nation for renewable energy production — more than 40% of the state’s electricity comes from renewables, primarily wind-powered turbines.
The result? More than 23 million metric tons of carbon dioxide that might have polluted the air and added to climate warming, didn’t.
“Renewable energy is good for the environment and the Kansas economy,” Gov. Laura Kelly has said.
Sadly, there are Kansans who are doing their best to undo this success. State Sen. Mike Thompson is leading the parade, rejecting claims of man-made climate change and fighting wind power at every turn.
Does likely Republican gubernatorial nominee Derek Schmidt agree with Thompson’s approach? Every Kansan should demand an answer to that question before casting a ballot this year.
Schmidt’s record on climate issues is not encouraging.
Schmidt sued the Biden administration, for example, over cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline. He joined other Republican attorneys general in fighting President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which attempted to move the country away from reliance on fossil fuels.
Interestingly, Schmidt was once chief counsel to Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican. Hagel was a key voice opposing the proposed 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty that would have committed the United States to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
“Any action this serious that is undertaken by the United States must be based on sound science and common sense,” Hagel said in July 1997. “This proposed treaty is based on neither.”
A recent documentary film on PBS’ “Frontline” showed clips of Hagel on the floor in 1997, denouncing the Kyoto negotiations. Who sat next to the Nebraska senator for those remarks? Derek Schmidt, who was given floor privileges for the speech.
The Senate unanimously approved Hagel’s anti-Kyoto resolution.
Did Schmidt play a role in that effort? Does he regret Hagel’s speech? Does he think climate science is still inconclusive? Kansans digging out from a tornado, or dealing with drought, have a right to know.
Schmidt’s campaign did not respond to emailed requests for comment.
But we know who rejects Hagel’s views today: Chuck Hagel. The oil companies lied about climate change, he told “Frontline.” The Kyoto treaty “would have put the United States and the world on a whole different track,” he said.
“And today we would have been so much further ahead than we are. It’s cost this country, and it cost the world,” Hagel says today.
The climate is changing, and time grows short. Kansans voting in November must know where the candidates stand on the issue and what they’ve learned — or not learned — from history.