Half of the nation’s Republican governors are climate change deniers, including Utah Gov. Gary Herbert.
The Center for American Progress notes fifteen of the 29 Republican governors deny climate climate change science, including Herbert.
In 2009, Governor Gary Herbert (R) said, “I’ve heard people argue on both sides of the issue, people I have a high regard for. People say man’s impact is minimal, if at all, so it appears to me the science is not necessarily conclusive,” on his acceptance of climate science. Herbert signed a clearly unconstitutional measure passed by the state legislature asserting that Utah can lay claim to 30 million acres of federal lands within the state’s borders and appropriating $3 million in scarce state funds to fight that hopeless battle in court. He has also brought a lawsuit to gain state control of 12,000 miles of “roads” that cross federal parks, monuments, wilderness areas and red rock wonderlands managed by the federal Department of Interior — many of which are nothing but cow paths and nearly invisible trails. In his 2014 “State of the State” address, the governor promised to speed the transition to Tier 3 vehicle and fuel standards, a move that “would lower the sulfur content of gasoline from 30 parts per million to 10 parts per million and require cleaner-burning emission controls on all new vehicles.” Herbert also asked the state air quality board to limit wood burning in high air pollution areas, and said he would require less auto travel and more mass transit travel by state employees.
The other Republican governors on the list of climate change deniers are:
- Jan Brewer – Arizona
- Rick Scott – Florida
- Nathan Deal – Georgia
- C.L. “Butch” Otter – Idaho
- Mike Pence – Indiana
- Sam Brownback – Kansas
- Paul LePage – Maine
- Susana Martinez – New Mexico
- Pat McCrory – North Carolina
- Mary Fallin – Oklahoma
- Tom Corbett – Pennsylvania
- Dennis Daugaard – South Dakota
- Rick Perry – Texas
- Matthew Mead – Wyoming
No Republicans made the list of “Green” governors.
