Politics
As Illinois RNC Delegation Celebrates Agriculture, Congresswoman Decries ‘Communist Environmental Movement’ and ‘Demonized’ Carbon Dioxide
U.S. Rep. Mary Miller (R-Illinois) made fiery comments at Wednesday morning’s breakfast for Illinois delegates to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, saying climate change advocates like Al Gore have been getting rich running a scam and accusing them of having “demonized” carbon dioxide.
Miller said excessive regulations are hurting agriculture, blaming the so-called “communist environmental movement, the ‘Green Bad Deal’ that Donald Trump has called out as a sham issue. And I want to tell you as a farmer, we love CO2 – and trees and plants love it too. They have demonized the miracle molecule that causes things to grow.”
The Inflation Reduction Act earmarked some $20 billion “to advance climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices,” the USDA said in a news release. According to the Yale School of the Environment, that effort kicked off with a $3.1 billion investment promoting farming methods that “keep the American agricultural juggernaut steaming ahead while slashing the sector’s immense greenhouse gas footprint.”
Greenhouse gasses, including CO2, are widely considered by a broad consensus of scientists and environmental experts to be a leading cause of human-driven climate change, warming the planet to unsafe temperatures and making weather patterns more extreme.
Miller told the breakfast she wore her boots today in advance of the Farmers for Trump event she and her husband, state Rep. Chris Miller (R-Charleston), are attending later today.
“We raise cattle, and these boots have waded through some BS,” Miller said. “I have threatened to wear them to the House floor before. If you don’t know it, there’s a little of that out in DC.”
Video: U.S. Rep. Mary Miller (R-Illinois) speaks at Wednesday morning’s breakfast for Illinois delegates to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Miller’s comments followed the day’s guest speaker, U.S. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-Pennsylvania), who said that “rural America is essential America.”
Thompson, who chairs the House Agriculture Committee that includes Miller and U.S. Rep Mike Bost (R-Illinois), tipped his hat to Illinois farmers for their prodigious plots.
“I’m not even going to get into the average size of your farms acreage-wise, because you make Pennsylvania look pretty pathetic,” Thompson said. “You measure your average acreage in five digits – we’re in three.”
Thompson blamed President Joe Biden for failing to fill key agricultural trade negotiation positions, saying many growers feel left behind.
“Farmers have been not supported, but punished by the Biden administration trade policy,” Thompson said. “There’s a whole lot of bellies to fill outside the United States of America, and we want to see them filled with these great American commodities.”
He also said regulations aimed at reducing the effects of climate change are punitive rather than productive.
“Everybody knows what the EPA is right now, right? It’s the Excessive Punishment Agency,” Thompson said.
U.S. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, speaks to the Illinois RNC delegation breakfast on Wednesday, July 17. (Nick Blumberg / WTTW News)
State Rep. Miller echoed comments made by Thompson and his wife, saying the widespread scientific consensus about the environment doesn’t square with what he’s experienced in his 70 years.
“We aren’t having a climate crisis, but what we are having is a crisis of common sense,” he said, adding that the “Green Bad Deal” is allowing China to get an economic leg up on the U.S.
Outgoing Illinois Republican Party chairman Don Tracy took a more measured stance.
“Republicans are environmentalists,” he said. “Richard Nixon, a Republican president – he gave birth to the EPA.”
Tracy said businesses have been “going green” for decades, saying that “we’re the cleanest country in the world in terms of energy production and manufacturing, in terms of air, in terms of water.”
While he acknowledged there’s more to be done in order to make a “better, cleaner world”, Tracy said there isn’t quite a climate crisis: “there are climate issues that need to be addressed. But we’re not crazy environmentalists, we’re rational environmentalists.”
Contact Nick Blumberg: [email protected] | (773) 509-5434 | @ndblumberg
