The Record - Q&A with North Jersey Congressional Candidates: Climate Change and What to Do About It

News Article

By Herb Jackson

This is the latest in a weekly series in which the major-party candidates in three North Jersey districts discuss issues that Congress has faced and will face. Excerpts of their responses are below.

Background: The mean annual temperature for Northern New Jersey was 50.6 degrees between 1895 and 1970, then 50.9 degrees from 1971 to 2000, and then 52.9 degrees from 2001 to 2008, according to state climatologist David Robinson. A series of reports in May by the National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, concluded that human activity is largely causing climate change and the consequences will be rising sea levels, disappearing arctic ice, and more frequent severe weather, including heat waves, droughts, and storms. Reducing emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide that are warming the atmosphere would mitigate the predicted effects. The House in 2009 adopted a law that would impose a steadily decreasing cap on emissions of greenhouse gases from many different kinds of sources, including industry, vehicles and energy production. It also created a way for producers of those gases, primarily carbon dioxide, to trade emissions credits. Those changes are expected to increase the cost for energy, and possibly many other things, because fuels that are cheapest such as coal and oil also tend to emit the most carbon.The Senate took no action on that bill in 2010. The Supreme Court has ruled the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority under the Clean Air Act to issue regulations to cap carbon as a pollutant, but the agency has not yet acted on that authority. The question: Would you vote to repeal the health insurance law enacted in March? If so, why? If not, what would you change if you could?

District 5

Warren County, parts of Bergen, Passaic and Sussex

Scott Garrett, Republican incumbent
"Congress should be taking in action this general area, but not in the area of trying to rein in global warming, just the opposite. The administration is taking action to try to pass regulations, on the regulatory side, because they can't get it done through the legislative side. And I think that points out the real question that still exists in a lot of people's minds, experts and non-experts alike, on the are of global warming and what role the government should have in this realm. … I've heard a number of experts on both sides of the equation on this issue and to me the evidence, the question is still out there. Before Congress takes some action such as the cap-and-trade that would effectively raise a, what was it, a $1,500 or $3,000 tax on every household in this country, Congress should not be moving too quickly, as we have in the area of stimulus and other spending bills and that sort of thing to impose regulations on this segment of the economy until these questions are answered."

Tod Theise, Democratic challenger
"I believe human activity is contributing to global warming. … It sort of pains me to think that we have to look at the annihilation of our species or the potential annihilation to actually do something about it. We have a commitment, not just to ourselves, but to future generations to be good stewards to the environment. It's not about politics. … We have to have an aggressive plan for alternative energy, a Marshall Plan. After World War II we were able to rebuild Germany, we rebuilt their economy, we helped Japan only. We have to have what I call an environmental Marshall Plan. We have to take our industrial infrastructure and change it over completely. It means investing in new technology, it means going to Detroit and saying, look, start building cars with batteries, start building cars that don't run on fossil fuels. And we have to get behind this."

District 8
Parts of Passaic and Essex counties

Bill Pascrell Jr., Democratic incumbent
"We have tremendous climate change in the world. There are variations beyond the standard. There are certain parts of the world that are becoming heated. This, we know, is a main result of too much carbon in the air. And we continue to depend upon fossil fuel, and foreign fossil fuel at that, but we should be looking at alternative forms of energy. … I know that's going to take time. This ain't going to happen over five or 10 or 15 years. But we've got to have that transition. … I'm strongly concerned about doing it in a way that we do not have a dramatic change of occupations from one day to the next, that we have a gradual transitional turn away from fossil fuel. …. I chose the cap and trade over direct taxes on carbon. I thought it would work better for New Jersey. … Was it far from perfect? It was probably further from perfect than any legislation that I voted on in the environment or energy [area] in the past six or seven years. I think it was going in the right direction, though, definitely."

Roland Straten, Republican challenger
"I frankly don't know. I'm an engineer and I really chafe at the bit when I hear that the science is concluded, that there's no more science, there's no more studies to be made on this. … So the science is still out as far as I'm concerned. The concept of using less energy is good. I think we should use basically more alternative energy, more solar panels, more windmills. … We need the engineers and scientists to decide what to do and we have to get it out of the big political thing. … … Should the government force something that's not economical? The answer is no. Should they help, help with research? I have no problem with helping with research. … The government should not force us to use a particular form of energy, what we need to do is let the free market decide."

District 9
Parts of Bergen, Hudson and Passaic counties

Steve Rothman, Democratic incumbent
"I do believe human activity is contributing to global warming. The question is how much and what are the costs to reduce that human activity vs. the benefits. And that's what we examine on a case-by-case basis when various proposals come before us. … I think it's important that we, No. 1, reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy, especially oil. So we needed to give incentives to those who were developing alternative sources of energy … And nuclear, if it's safe, and we can make it safe, then we ought to pursue that, and that was in the bill as well. … I'm looking forward to the Senate coming up with its version of an energy bill. … If they have better ideas, if they're unable to go as far as we went, I just want to move the country forward in a common-sense smart way. But move the country forward."

Michael Agosta, Republican challenger
"Well, the global warming, I thought after all that with Al Gore and his film career and all of his Nobel Peace Prize and such, I thought there was that scandal with the e-mail about how fake that actual situation truly is. Are we contributing to it? Yes we are, in a very, very, very small amount. … In the late 80s or early 90s, they were blaming cows with the methane. Now we're going to blame, we talk about [carbon dioxide], here in New Jersey, actually, whether it's a possible pollutant. CO2. If we have no CO2, we have no grass, we have no trees, then we'll die. … I think we have enough, between the [Environmental Protection Agency] and any other agency in the federal government, we have enough regulations on the books and laws and such and I don't think we need any more intervention."

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