More From Two Key Western Governors

by Paul Chesser, Heartland Institute Correspondent on June 17, 2009

The annual meeting of the Western Governors Association closed yesterday, and the Deseret News stuck with the global warming theme of departing (once he’s confirmed ambassador to China) Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. (an alarmist) being replaced by Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert (a skeptic). The newspaper put Herbert in the spotlight once again about his intentions on the issue when he takes the top office:

Herbert, who will have to run in 2010 for the remainder of Huntsman’s term, told the Deseret News he had no political agenda. “I’m certainly not going to be the same as Gov. Huntsman,” Herbert said, but was not “calculating to set myself apart.”

He said other governors attending the meeting told him privately they agreed with him (about climate change) but the [WGA] had already decided its position. A resolution urging regional and national policies on global climate change was approved at the meeting.

Herbert said he hopes to organize his own conference in Utah so scientists on both sides of the issue can make their arguments.

“When it gets right down to it, I’m not too radical. I’m just a simple guy,” he said. “If I don’t understand it, there are probably a lot of other people who don’t, either.”

Meanwhile Democratic Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (a somewhat reformed alarmist) reiterated his views that the debate about global warming is not settled:

[Schweitzer] said, “while I believe and I think many people agree with me that human activity has contributed to greenhouse gases and those greenhouse gases are changing our climate and it is something we need to address, others don’t believe it.”

Schweitzer said most people fall between the extremes of dismissing climate change altogether and believing that “unless we move immediately into a cave and live around a campfire that the world is going to be destroyed.”

It’d be nice if President Obama paid attention to that message.

Hat tip to Sutherland Institute President Paul Mero.

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