Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has been giving weekly speeches on the Senate floor to try and wake up Americans to the threat of climate change and the web of denial that keeps the public from demanding climate action.
On Tuesday, he gave his 150th speech, providing a climate science history lesson and doing his part in sounding the alarm about the threat posed by President-elect Trump’s decision to put Myron Ebell in charge of the EPA transition. As always, he highlighted the fossil fuel industry-funded Web of Denial-- the interlocking professional network that casts doubt on the science and sows distrust among the public. Interestingly, he points out that prior to the 2010 Citizens United case, there was GOP support for climate action. After “Citizens United uncorked all that dark money,” Republicans became unified in climate denial.
Senator Whitehouse’s outing of the corrupting influence of Citizens United and his focus on the deniers’ funding irritated Steve Milloy, publisher of the ironically named junkscience.com. On Twitter, Milloy said “Skeptics not industry-funded. We wish it did.” Which is funny because Milloy clearly misses the days when he was gorging himself on the industry trough.
Though we don’t know who’s funding his climate denial now that he’s no longer a coal executive, his Twitter bio also notes he’s a former Fox News columnist. What he neglects to mention is that Fox cut him loose in 2006, when they were informed that Milloy was in fact funded by Phillip Morris and ExxonMobil.
So while his statement that skeptics aren’t industry-funded is a lie, there’s little doubt he’s absolutely sincere in wishing he were (still) on the fossil fuel bankroll.
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