Update: Calif. Senate backs away from bill criminalizing climate change doubt
Washington Examiner: Marc Morano, a climate change doubter who runs Climate Depot, said the California bill is the logical end point of the debate between believers and doubters. He said those who believe in climate change have been trying for years to silence doubters and now, given the calls to investigate Exxon Mobil for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act violations and the California bill, there are attempts to actually charge people for their beliefs."You can't even question the predictions of 50-100 years from now or that's considered hate speech," he said. "That goes against everything this country was founded on."Morano said climate change believers want to delegitimize their critics instead of engaging in any sort of debate over the science. He said the bill proposed by Allen is another step in silencing dissent. "This is the language of religion, not science," he said.
The California Senate won’t take up a bill that would make it illegal for businesses to not believe in climate change.
Senate Bill 1161 would turn not believing in climate change into an unfair business practice in California and would extend the statute of limitations on the charge. The bill has been criticized as being anti-free speech.
Democratic State Sen. James Monning took the bill off the Senate floor on Wednesday. The bill had passed both the state Senate’s environmental and judiciary committees and can be reconsidered at a later date.
State Sen. Ben Allen, a Democrat, introduced the bill after reading reports in the Los Angeles Times and Inside Climate News about Exxon Mobil’s alleged coverup of climate science dating to the 1970s.
