The refusal of Minnesota House Republicans to acknowledge the reality of climate change is well known. That being the case, Bluestem's left to wonder how the caucus reacted to recent statements from the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association blaming poor water quality in the Minnesota River on climate change.
The caucus thumbed its nose at climate scientists in a roll call vote in 2015, in which 71 of 72 House Republicans voted no to "an amendment during debate on the House Jobs and Energy omnibus bill that asked the Minnesota legislature to acknowledge climate change is real and is caused by human activity."
Perhaps the most vocal climate change denier is Glencoe-area Republican Glenn Gruenhagen. Bluestem has posted about Gruenhagen's denier outbursts for years, most recently in LCCMR debate, pt. 3: Watch freshman legislator react to Gruenhagen's climate change denial. Screengrab at top of post.
Imagine Gruenhagen and friends' consternation at this remark from the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association director of public affairs in Brownfields' article, Farmers targeted in Minnesota River water quality report:
In its report, MPCA says runoff and artificial drainage from farmland are primary causes of sediment and unhealthy nitrogen and phosphorous levels.
Smentek contends the Minnesota River was dirty long before modernized agriculture and calls the study incomplete.
“Since settlers originally got here 13,000 years ago it’s been a dirty river. And we fund research with a group at the University of Minnesota doing the exact same thing that the PCA is looking at. And one of the big things that (the University) finds is that the primary driving force of these increased flows is Climate Change.”
He tells Brownfield that research shows seven out of the last ten years Minnesota has experienced above-average rainfall, making Climate Change the leading cause of most of the River’s water quality issues.
We're curious to see if the denier caucus picks up on that one. As for the Minnesota being a dirty river for 13,000 years, we'll give Smentek credit for recognizing pre-European contact settlers, though we're not sure our Dakota neighbors practiced a kind of agriculture that dirtied the river.
We'd posted about the MPCA report earlier this month in Yuck! Minnesota River still sick & dirty from too much phosphorus, nitrogen and nasty bacteria.
Photo: Freshman legislator Keith Frank (upper left), R-St. Paul Park, reacts to Glenn Gruenhagen's climate change denying remarks. Franke voted for the Bly amendment; see Journal of the House page 6378).
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An equally pressing question is, how many Hot Cheetos did Mark Uglem eat before going catatonic?
Posted by: Jonathan Marchand | Oct 24, 2017 at 08:39 AM