Illinois Republican John Shimkus is vying to be the head of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce when the new Congress convenes in 2011. This committee is one of the oldest in existence, and plays a central role in the formulation of energy policy. It would also be the genesis of any carbon or climate based legislation.
I’m sorry, did I say genesis? No, a Shimkus led Energy and Commerce Committee would be the genesis of no such thing. Why? Because of Genesis, as in the Book of. Shimkus recently quoted Genesis 8:22 on the House floor, “As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.” He cites the passage as proof that we needn’t worry about this whole silly global warming thing because God says He won’t let us destroy the planet. It’ll be over when He says it’s over, and not before. (Charles Jaco, of KTVI in St.Louis covers the story in a video clip.)
Yet Shimkus doesn’t stop there. He explains that the notion of puny little mankind impacting something like the global climate is strictly arrogance on our part. Sure, the climate’s changing, but we didn’t do it, can’t stop it, and frankly should just embrace it—go with the flow, so to speak. He goes on to tout the upside to global warming. Sure, New Orleans and NYC will be underwater, but hey, vegetable gardens in Greenland!
Where was this line of reasoning during the cold war? We’d have saved billions of dollars and countless man-years of worry and angst if only we’d realized global nuclear annihilation would be prevented by God instead of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). And think of all the money wasted on smokestack scrubbers to abate the northeast’s acid rain in the 70’s. If only we’d have been patient, God would have set it right for us.
God’s fine with us being irresponsible. He kind of expects it. After that whole Eve and the snake debacle He learned that having given us free will meant he was going to spend eternity chasing us around with a galactic size roll of supernaturally absorbent Bounty towels to clean up our messes. So, you know… no worries.
Maybe Shimkus is fully aware he’s using the bible as a lever to carry out the objectives of the big oil lobby. Maybe he’s dumber than a starving polar bear who walks 1000 miles to hug a man in his driveway and fails to think, “(sniff, sniff) Hmmm… smells like lunch.” Either way, let’s not put this guy in charge.