Michael Williams Gives Hungry CPAC Crowd a Healthy Portion of Climate Denialism

Texas Railroad Commissioner and U.S. Senate candidate Michael Williams — sporting an incandescent blue bow tie — drew huge cheers from the CPAC crowd this morning with boilerplate rhetoric attacking Democratic efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

After being introduced as a man whose job dealt with oil and gas as much as railroads, he told an eager audience that there’s no greater threat to America than “the fantasy called global warming.”

“CO2 is a commodity,” he said, “It’s not a waste; it’s not a pollutant.”

He questioned the science behind global warming and said that Democrats who criticized President Bush’s preemptive warfare in Iraq had no right to flaunt “preemptive warming” now. He also received a standing ovation for a call to drill for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

After the crowd’s tepid response to Rep. Steve King’s (R-Iowa) drawn-out allusions to President Obama’s “mojo,” it’s clear what kind of rhetoric this CPAC audience wants to hear.