Democrat President Joe Biden’s Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg is facing a backlash over his recent comments seeking to blame airplane turbulence on “climate change.”
Critics have accused Buttigieg of “playing politics” with the remarks.
On Sunday, Buttigieg was featured on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
During the interview with anchor Margaret Brennan, Buttigieg claimed the effects of “climate change” are to blame for extreme weather and recent incidents of severe turbulence on airplanes.
Brennan asked Buttigieg about strains on the national transportation system when bad weather compounds a heavy travel weekend like Memorial Day.
Buttigieg was also asked what he thinks of the latest outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicting a more severe hurricane season this year.
“The reality is, the effects of climate change are already upon us in terms of our transportation,” Buttigieg alleged.
“We’ve seen that in the form of everything from heat waves that shouldn’t statistically even be possible threatening to melt the cables of transit systems in the Pacific Northwest to … hurricane seasons becoming more and more extreme and indications that turbulence is up by about 15%.
“That means assessing anything and everything that we can do about it.”
WATCH:
Pete Buttigieg is the prototypical liberal bureaucrat.
Academically gifted with no ability to solve real world problems.
A dumb smart kid. pic.twitter.com/b2ZasoeIqC
— Eric Matheny 🎙️ (@ericmmatheny) May 26, 2024
In response, GOP lawmakers and leading climate analysts have rejected Buttigieg’s invocation of “climate change.”
One legislator warned that weather and public transit systems are being politicized.
Rep. Aaron Bean (R-FL), a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in response:
“Clearly, Secretary Buttigieg is not serious about addressing our numerous transportation challenges.
“He is playing identity politics to the detriment of the American people.
“Buttigieg’s latest comments are contradicted by the National Transportation Safety Board and just another example of how out of touch he is with hardworking Americans.”
Energy analyst Alex Epstein, a former Cato Institute scholar and the author of “Fossil Future,” also accused Buttigieg of wrongly attributing recent crises to “climate change.”
“Climate itself is not meaningfully affecting transportation, but terrible climate policy, including that of Pete Buttigieg,” Epstein said.
“For example, the EPA’s new pollution standards constitute a de facto EV mandate that will force Americans to drive inferior cars and place massive new demand for reliable electricity on an already failing grid.”
Another climate expert pointed to the increase in overall airline flights as a reason for the concern.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, the director of the Heritage Foundation Center for Energy, Climate and the Environment, said:
“One reason that more turbulence is recorded is that there are more flights.
“Even if the United States stopped using all fossil fuels right now, it would only make a difference of 2/10 of one-degree centigrade by the year 2100, government models show.
“There’s no way that these changes can be attributed to climate change.
“The climate is changing all the time, but there’s no reason that these changes can be attributed to the use of greenhouse gases.”
Furchtgott-Roth also attributed the prevalence of social media and connectivity on planes to people being able to report in-flight issues almost instantly.
However, the Department of Transportation pushed back on critics.
In a statement, the department insisted that there are connections between “climate change” and airline turbulence.
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