Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz clashed with a group of climate activists who interrupted his remarks at a Thursday night event.
Protesters sat on the stage next to Cruz and began chanting slogans, ostensibly to bring attention to the issue of climate change and protest against Cruz’s positions on energy, during the senator’s remarks at an event hosted by a conservative organization in Washington.
Cruz did not back down, instead using the microphone to question the activists about their knowledge of basic climate and energy facts, grainy footage of the incident posted to social media shows.
“Hold on, hold on, which country is the biggest climate polluter on planet Earth?” the senator asked the protesters. “You have no idea.
“You’re a protester and you’re utterly ignorant about what you’re protesting about. What’s the answer?”
“OK, so you don’t know,” he said a few seconds later. “He’s literally protesting about climate, and he can’t tell you who the biggest polluter on planet Earth is. And he won’t.”
One of the activists barked back at Cruz with a response that was mostly inaudible in the footage.
“What country is the largest polluter on planet Earth today?” the senator said.
One of the protesters responded that it was the United States.
“OK, so this young lady has no clue, she said ‘the United States of America,” Cruz said. “She is protesting, and she has literally no idea. By the way, the answer is communist China.
“Which country leads the world in the reduction of carbon emissions? Are you gonna know the answer to that? I’ll give you a hint, it was the wrong answer you gave before: It’s the United States of America.”
The crowd then began to applaud the senator.
“Do you know why?” Cruz continued. “The reason is because of the thing you’re protesting against: fossil fuels. No, no, you’re so ignorant, you don’t know. So if you’re going to protest, confront some facts.”
Climate protesters disrupted Sen. Cruz’s speech tonight. He flipped the script and put them on the spot. “Which country is the biggest climate polluter on Planet Earth? You have no idea!”
The obvious well-known answer is Communist China. They wouldn’t say or they don’t know.… pic.twitter.com/PGrLPkrplO
— Darin Miller (@DarinBMiller) July 12, 2024
China is by far the world’s leading carbon polluter, according to The Carbon Brief, and that country permitted an average of two new coal plants per week in 2022, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
The United States, meanwhile, reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by about 17.5 percent between 2005 and 2022, according to Environmental Protection Agency data.
Many energy sector experts have credited the natural gas boom of the late 2000s as the primary driver of this reduction, as a boom in affordable, cleaner gas allowed the country to reduce its reliance on coal.
Between 2005 and 2022, U.S. energy production from natural gas approximately doubled while coal use decreased, and U.S. natural gas consumption increased by about 46 percent over the same period, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data.
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