AOC Blames Racist Climate Change For Hurricanes That Kill Minorities – Links ‘predominantly white’ areas for causing the most emissions that cause bad hurricanes

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put a racial spin Wednesday on climate change and hurricanes, attributing emissions from “predominantly white” corporations and communities for juicing recent storms that cost “predominantly black and brown lives” in Louisiana and Puerto Rico.

Even as House Republicans argued that cheap electricity from fossil fuels has helped lift more than a billion people out of poverty around the world, the New York Democrat asked a witness about whether “the Global South and communities of color” bear the brunt of climate “havoc.”

“[T]he people that are producing climate change, the folks that are responsible for the largest amount of emissions, or communities, or corporations, they tend to be predominantly white, correct?” she asked at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on civil rights and civil liberties.

The National Wildlife Federation’s Mustafa Ali replied that “yes, and every study backs that up I know no one is intentionally trying to kill people and hurt people.”

“My own grandfather died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria,” said Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, referring to the 2017 Puerto Rico storm that ultimately left about 3,000 dead. “We can’t act as though the inertia and history of colonization doesn’t play a role in this.”

Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican, pointed out that the deadliest hurricane in North American history remains the 1900 Great Galveston Storm, which killed between 6,000 and 12,000 people, making landfall well before the rise of atmospheric carbon-dioxide emissions.

What’s more, he said, low-income communities will be the hardest hit if climate change initiatives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s proposed ban on hydraulic fracturing are enacted.

“Let’s talk about the massive violation of civil liberties that will occur if we do as Elizabeth Warren has said, and ban fracking,” said Mr. Roy. “Let’s crush the American economy and crush the jobs not only in Texas but around the United States, and ban fracking in a fit of hysteria, undermining the very civil liberties of the Americans that depend on that affordable and available abundant energy.”

#ICYMI: Watch @RepChipRoy’s opening statement from today’s subcommittee hearing examining climate change. https://t.co/dKOGgnUC7N

— Oversight Committee Republicans (@GOPoversight) October 23, 2019