Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) reaffirmed his climate change denier status before a crowd in Bedford, N.H., Wednesday and accused the researchers behind climate change science of playing games with the numbers to land more research funding.
“I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized,” Perry said. “I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects.”
This puts Perry on the extreme end of the climate change skepticism community, and distances him greatly from Mitt Romney, who has said he believes climate change is real and caused in part by human activity.
It also proves that Perry is not going to temper his anti-climate change views for the national electorate as he runs for president. Back in Texas, Perry was listed by the League of Conservation Voters as one of the 12 worst state lawmakers in the country on environmental issues and it’s not likely his comments in Bedford will help change that as he takes the national stage.
Watch video of the remarks captured by trackers with the independent Democratic group American Bridge (Perry starts talking at the :53 mark):
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
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