Last month, we asked our readers what issues they wanted to hear the candidates running for office address ahead of November’s general election. Based on the input we received, we developed a five-item questionnaire for candidates running for the U.S. House seat covering Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District.
We have been publishing the candidates’ responses to one item per day each day this week. Today we’re publishing the candidates’ response to the final item:
Climate change continues to be a major concern for Shawnee Mission Post readers. What steps should the federal government be taking now to address the impact of the changing climate in the coming decades? How would you work to see those steps enacted?
Amanda Adkins (Republican)
Raising taxes and imposing more regulations are Washington’s default answers to far too many problems. Burdensome new taxes and job-killing regulations will stifle our best tool to address any environmental challenges we may face: free-market innovation. I have confidence that American ingenuity will continue to improve our nation’s energy efficiency and resilience in the face of any adverse impacts of climate change.
Through the invention and adoption of new, cost-effective technologies, our nation has already made great strides in using natural resources more efficiently, cleaning up pollution, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The federal government may have a role in incentivizing the development and adoption of these technologies and in making improvements to key infrastructure to withstand any impacts of climate change. However, our economy has proven, time after time, its ability to adapt to new challenges, and it can do so better without stifling government intervention.
Steve Hohe (Libertarian)
For over ten years I’ve followed the discussion on Climate Change and weighed the science. First, the data: there has been meteorological information collected in the United States over the last 150 years starting in the 1850’s when the Smithsonian Institution supplied weather instrumentation to telegraph stations across the country to record and report temperatures by volunteers. Both the instruments and involvement by volunteers may have slighted reports. In addition, there have been reports that temperature numbers have been changed or exaggerated.
Second, claims that the inhabitants of the earth would be dead in 10 years by a greenhouse effect made 10 years ago did not happen. Polar ice cap melting and rising water levels haven’t happened. In addition, no polar bears drowned. Farting cows raising the levels of methane in the atmosphere. I could go on and on, but it’s just bunk! As we go forward in the coming decades provide me with real data, real science and let’s be logical!
Third, if I’m going to enact any legislation on climate change, give me facts not theories. Why increase the national debt by $4 trillion to promote climate change, shut down industries in the U.S. first and not worldwide thus wrecking the U.S. economy.
Sharice Davids (incumbent Democrat)
Climate change is one of the most daunting challenges facing our generation, and that change is having real impacts on our economy, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. We must work together to address the climate crisis at every level of government.
I support thoughtful solutions to our climate crisis that create good-paying jobs, grow our clean energy economy and leave behind a cleaner planet for our future generations. One way we can do that is by capitalizing on renewable energy — something we are uniquely positioned to do in Kansas since our region has some of the highest wind production in the world. I’ve also spent my time in Congress working on bipartisan solutions that will protect our public land, air, water, and trails. We recently passed the Great American Outdoors Act, which is the biggest land conservation legislation in a generation, and is now law.
Review the U.S. House candidates’ responses to four other issues raised by our readers:
Question #1: Responding to the Black Lives Matter protests
Question #2: Addressing the federal debt
Question #3: The federal COVID-19 response
Question #4: Health care spending
