Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) recent climate-change field trip to Colorado perfectly exemplifies both the hypocrisy and the scientific ignorance of the “global warming” crowd. Ocasio-Cortez managed not only to spew tons of carbon dioxide into the air but also to make demonstrably false claims about an alleged hydraulic fracturing (fracking) site.
The congresswoman — who once said, “The world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change” — made two appearances in Boulder, Colorado, Saturday, one at a high-school event on the Green New Deal and the other at the Boulder County Democratic Party’s annual Truman Dinner.
At the Truman Dinner, Ocasio-Cortez said there is “nothing to fear except inaction. The only thing we should be scared of is our future if we do nothing. We have to be bold and audacious and ambitious as possible.”
Congressman Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), who represents Boulder, invited Ocasio-Cortez to the event because he is a fan of the Green New Deal and believes that America must “fight the existential threat of climate change,” he told the Denver Post.
According to climate-change believers, one of the biggest contributors to global warming is carbon dioxide, and one of the largest sources of carbon “pollution” is vehicles that burn fossil fuels. The Green New Deal calls for eliminating greenhouse-gas emissions from the U.S. transportation system within 10 years.
However, to get to the Boulder events, Ocasio-Cortez took an airplane from Washington, D.C., to Denver, a distance of roughly 1,670 miles. According to The Guardian, a flight from London to Rome, which is only about 1,100 miles, emits 234 kilograms of carbon dioxide per passenger — “more than the average produced by citizens of 17 countries annually.” In other words, in order to stump for policies that would force average Americans to reduce their own carbon emissions (at great cost and inconvenience), Ocasio-Cortez put a significant amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
This is in keeping with the habits of many other movers and shakers who warn of a “climate crisis” yet routinely fly all over the world, often in private jets, to concoct schemes supposedly to save the planet. In fact, a University of Michigan study found that climate-change believers actually pollute the Earth more than skeptics.
While in the Centennial State, Ocasio-Cortez visited what she believed was a fracking site in Broomfield. She posted infrared video of the site on Twitter with the following text:
I’m in Colorado w/ @JoeNeguse visiting communities whose air is being poisoned by fracking.
What we’re seeing is appalling. Companies are building fracking sites on public lands, across the street from schools + homes.
Their toxic emissions are invisible. This camera sees them.
Sure enough, the video does appear to show “toxic emissions” from the “fracking” site. Unfortunately for Ocasio-Cortez, there is neither fracking nor toxic emissions at the site.
Brian Cain, a spokesman for Extraction Oil & Gas, told the Daily Caller that Ocasio-Cortez’s assertions were “categorically false.” Instead, he said, “the operations she was viewing have been lauded as among the best anywhere in the United States for their management practices and facility designs that protect air quality, public health and the environment.” There is no fracking taking place at the site, only drilling, and the video showed “a heat signature caused by high-temperature (200-plus degrees) synthetic drilling mud being circulated to the surface against cooler fall temperatures,” he stated.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Association and Liberty Oilfield Service confirmed Cain’s claims.
But perhaps worst of all, from Ocasio-Cortez’s standpoint, was the confirmation from Mary Throne, a Democrat who serves on the Wyoming Public Service Commission: “Interesting video, but @AOC there is no fracking occurring at the site as shown and no way to determine compliance or lack thereof with CO air standards. As Dems, we do ourselves no favors when we ignore science and facts.”
Of course, if Ocasio-Cortez didn’t “ignore science and facts,” she wouldn’t be backing the Green New Deal in the first place.
Image of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Screenshot from twitter.com
