This story originally appeared on Houston Public Media.
Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) spoke by video to a banquet room of attendees at a symposium on climate change and the energy industry. It was organized by a pro-industry, right-leaning group called the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
“The work of the Texas Public Policy Foundation is critical. Your excellent research provides the intellectual ammunition necessary to combat the left’s fearmongering and scare tactics,” Cruz said.
Mentioned most was the Obama Administration and its new rules to reduce pollution from coal-burning power plants; pollution linked to climate change.
Attorney General Ken Paxton told the gathering, he’s busy suing the Administration to stop those and other new federal rules. “We’ve actually sued the Obama Administration six times which is a remarkable number to be suing the federal government,” Paxton said as the audience applauded.
The summit is also featuring other speakers who deny that climate change will be all that bad for the planet.
News 88.7 asked a climate scientist at Rice University, Andre Droxler, to listen in on the symposium and give his reaction.
“It seems like the gathering in Austin – it looks more like looking at the past than looking at the future,” Droxler said.
Droxler said that the future of the planet won’t be good if nothing is done to reduce global warming.
“This will have some major impact,”Droxler said. “Not a thousand years from now, but maybe within this coming century.”