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Rep. Broun receives applause on the House floor for calling global warming a ˜hoax

[This post was reprinted from thinkprogress.]

During the floor debate this morning over the historic American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) received a round of applause from GOP colleagues when he claimed that man-made global warming is a “hoax” with “no scientific consensus.” Broun, citing misleading statistics, also claimed that the bill would hurt the poor and “kill jobs:”

BROUN: Scientists all over this world say that the idea of human induced global climate change is one of the greatest hoaxes perpetrated out of the scientific community. It is a hoax. There is no scientific consensus. “¦ And who’s going to be hurt most [by ACES] the poor, the people on limited income”¦the people who can least afford to have their energy taxes raised by MIT says $3100 per family. “¦ This bill must be defeated. We need to be good stewards of our environment, but this is not it, it’s a hoax! “¦ [APPLAUSE.]

Watch it:

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Broun’s tired hoax claims aside, Broun’s $3,100 talking point is contradicted by the Congressional Budget Office, which found that that the average cost of the legislation would be only 48-cents a day, the price of a postage stamp, and that “households in the lowest income quintile would see an average net benefit of about $40 in 2020.” A report by the Center for American Progress and the University of Massachusetts also found that the bill would create 1.7 million new jobs, including 59,000 new jobs in Broun’s homestate of Georgia.

Ben Bergmann