Critics respond Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who attributed recent significant weather events and transportation crises to climate change, at least in part.
On Sunday, Buttigieg appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” where he claimed the effects of climate change were behind recent incidents of severe airplane turbulence and extreme weather.
Presenter Margaret Brennan asked about the strains on the nation’s transportation system when bad weather worsens a busy travel weekend like Memorial Day and what he thinks of NOAA’s latest forecast predicting a more severe hurricane season this year.
“The reality is that the effects of climate change are already being felt on our transportation,” Buttigieg responded.
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“We’ve seen this in the form of everything from heat waves that shouldn’t even be statistically possible, threatening to melt the cables of mass transit systems in the Pacific Northwest, to extreme weather seasons. hurricanes becoming more and more extreme and indications are that turbulence is increasing by around 15%.
“That means evaluating everything we can do about it.”
In response, Republican lawmakers and some climate analysts have rejected Buttigieg’s invocation of climate change, with one lawmaker saying the weather and transit systems are politicized.
“Clearly, Secretary Buttigieg is not serious about solving our many transportation problems. He is pursuing identity politics at the expense of the American people,” said Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., a ranking committee member. transportation and infrastructure of the House of Representatives.
“Buttigieg’s latest comments are contradicted by the National Transportation Safety Board and are just another example of how he is out of touch with American workers.”
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Energy analyst Alex Epstein, a former Cato Institute researcher and author of “Fossil Future,” told Fox News Digital that the secretary is also incorrectly attributing recent crises to climate change.
“The climate itself does not significantly affect transportation, but it is terrible climate policyincluding that of Pete Buttigieg,” Epstein said.
“For example, the EPA’s new pollution standards are a de facto mandate for electric vehicles that will force Americans to drive substandard cars and create massive new demand for reliable electricity on an already failing grid.”
Another climate expert pointed to the increase in total air flights as a reason for this concern.
“One of the reasons more turbulence is being recorded is because there are more flights,” said Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Energy, Climate and Environment. .
“Even if the United States stopped using all fossil fuels now, it would only make a difference of 2/10 of a degree centigrade by 2100, government models show. There is no way these changes could be attributed to climate change. The climate is constantly changing, but there is no reason why these changes can be attributed to the use of greenhouse gases.
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Furchtgott-Roth also attributed the prevalence of social media and connectivity on board planes to the fact that people can report problems in flight almost instantly.
However, the Department of Transportation pushed back against the criticism and pointed Fox News Digital to a 2019 study in Nature magazine which discussed the links between climate change and airline turbulence.
Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., leaves a House Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on April 30, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
A department representative cited study co-author Paul Williams, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Reading, as saying that study organizers had accumulated a large body of scientific evidence now that turbulence is increasing. due to climate change.
“An invisible form called clear-air turbulence is generated by wind shear, which, due to climate change, is now 15% stronger than in the 1970s. We expect further strengthening of wind shear in the decades to come. coming, perhaps doubling or tripling the amount of severe turbulence,” Williams wrote.
Requests for comment from the top Republican on the House Transportation Committee, Sam Graves of Missouri, and the top Democrat, Rick Larsen of Washington, were not returned.
Calls made to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, were not returned as of publication time.
