Today’s oil spill hearing ensures Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) will be entertaining YouTube audiences and warming Democratic hearts for weeks and months to come.
But we’ve been here before!
Most famously, Barton last year challenged Nobel-prize winning Energy Secretary Steven Chu about where fossil fuel comes from. After misunderstanding Chu’s answer, Barton then smugly claimed on Twitter that, “I seemed [sic] to have baffled the Energy Sec with basic question - Where does oil come from?”
Watch the exchange that prompted the tweet:
At an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing In March 2009, Barton (the ranking member of the panel) explained how “adaptation” — such as finding shade when it is warm out — is the obvious solution to climate change:
Watch:
Finally, here’s Barton on Fox in July seizing on so-called “Carbongate,” an extremely short-lived right-wing cause celebre involving an iffy study questioning climate change. “Just as Nixon had Watergate, Obama now has Carbongate to deal with,” said Barton.
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