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A gubernatorial race that has already featured several climate change-related gaffes got another round last week, as Republican candidate Scott Wagner made his case against sweeping changes to slow climate trends.
Wagner defended himself in a TV interview and a town hall meeting, seeking to silence complaints that he rejects climate science.
"Listen, climate change is happening," Wagner said in response to an audience question in York last week. "But let's be realistic. I don't have an agenda to go to a complete 100 percent renewable energy program because it's not realistic."
Wagner's campaign was more direct, noting in a press release: "The policy debate in Pennsylvania should not be about whether or not climate change is real and contributed to by humans -- both candidates believe it is -- but how to balance addressing climate change in a way that is realistic for the commonwealth's economy."
State Democrats quickly piled on Wagner for what they portrayed as a sudden about-face on climate. Wagner had previously suggested alternative explanations for climate change, including Earth's distance from the sun.
Since then, Wagner has argued that his job as governor would be to handle the effects of climate change, not to prevent it. In York, he detailed infrastructure upgrades Pennsylvania cities need to handle stormwater surges and powerful rains.
Both gubernatorial candidates have been hit on their climate policies -- in one case, by the same well-known voter. Rose Strauss, an 18-year-old climate activist, launched a surge of criticism against Wagner when he called her "young and naive" at a public forum.
Gov. Tom Wolf's re-election campaign quickly capitalized on the situation, offering stickers and T-shirts with the "young and naive" slogan. But Strauss struck at Wolf soon afterward, demanding answers on his campaign donations from the fossil fuel industry.
Wolf has supported environmental activists, Strauss told the website Billy Penn, but hasn't taken "action on things we care about like climate change."
Koch groups
join Pa. races
Speaking of fossil fuel donations: The constellation of political action committees backed by the billionaire Koch brothers has jumped into Pennsylvania's general election, weeks after they took sides in at least one local race.
Americans for Prosperity -- a group funded by Charles and David Koch, both fossil fuel billionaires and Democratic nemeses -- announced last week that it would back Wagner with phone calls, in-person canvassing and ads before the November election. The conservative, free-market group is lending its weight to Wagner's campaign, which has remained behind Wolf's in polls.
In a news release announcing the campaign help, Americans for Prosperity urged voters to "Fire Tom Wolf: Wolf's lack of leadership has instead left the commonwealth with a legacy of bigger government, higher taxes and runaway spending that consistently stifles economic dynamism and prioritizes Harrisburg's interests over those of everyday Pennsylvanians."
Wolf's campaign criticized the group, which maintains a base of operations in Pennsylvania and has organized conservative activists in past races.
"These big oil and gas barons are trying to buy the election for Scott Wagner so he can continue to give handouts to billionaires like the Kochs by blocking a severance tax and refusing to make big corporations pay their fair share," Wolf's representatives told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Koch-backed groups have already taken an interest locally, including in the race to replace Rep. Bill Shuster, R-9th District.
Americans for Prosperity targeted Rep. Lou Barletta, R-11th District -- now the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate -- earlier this year for backing wasteful federal spending.
And Koch Industries PAC, a group formally aligned with the brothers' multinational corporation, gave at least $5,000 to hopeful Shuster successor John Joyce in late June, after he sealed the GOP nomination for the new 13th District.
As of June 30, Joyce was one of four state candidates to get cash from the group.
GOP condemns heckling incident
State Republicans have called on politicians to condemn the "dangerous and unsettling situation" on Monday, when protesters heckled two conservative media figures in Philadelphia.
Antifascist activists confronted Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens -- two prominent leaders of Turning Point USA, a right-wing student group -- as they ate breakfast in Philadelphia. The protesters blew whistles and chanted slogans; one emptied a water bottle over Kirk, leaving him soaked.
"As divisive political rhetoric from the radical left turns into violence, I call on Pennsylvania Democratic Party and all Democrats of character to denounce this -- and any -- activity that seeks to replace reasoned debate with violence and intimidation," state GOP Chairman Val DiGiorgio said in a written statement.
DiGiorgio's condemnation came as far-right and white nationalists activists planned a Washington, D.C., rally to commemorate the first anniversary of "Unite the Right." At that gathering, held a year ago in Virginia, a white nationalist attendee allegedly killed a protester and injured many others when he sped his car into a crowd.
"Should they remain silent," DiGiorgio said of Democratic officials, "they remain complicit with a group that seeks to obstruct, destruct, and tear this country apart."
Ryan Brown can be emailed at rbrown@altoonamirror.com.