Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was slammed Wednesday for suggesting climate change played a role in the deadly Florida condominium collapse as she made a pitch for President Biden‘s infrastructure package.
Rep. Byron Donalds, Florida Republican, said that Ms. Granholm, the former Michigan governor, “should be ashamed.”
“To come out and to play your politics and to talk about climate change and sea-level rise, it’s not the time for that. She should be ashamed of herself,” said Mr. Donalds on “Fox & Friends.”
“And frankly, anybody that sits there nodding their head should be ashamed as well. Let’s actually deal with the tragedy in front of us.”
The cause of the condo’s June 24 cave-in has yet to be determined, but in an interview Tuesday with CNN, Ms. Granholm was asked if “climate could have played a role in that building’s collapse.”
“Obviously, we don’t know fully, but we do know that the seas are rising. We know that we’re losing inches and inches of beaches, not just in Florida but all around,” Ms. Granholm replied. “Michigan, where I’m from, we’ve seen the loss of beaches because the waters are rising, so this is a phenomenon that will continue.”
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava reported Wednesday that the death toll has risen to 16 after the discovery of four additional victims, while 147 remain missing in the rubble from the June 24 partial collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside.
Critics on the right accused Ms. Granholm of being tone-deaf at best and leveraging the tragedy for political gain at worst.
“Capitalizing on an ongoing tragedy to push a political agenda is straight out of the extremist eco-left playbook,” said Larry Behrens, Western states director of Power the Future. “In the midst of all the grief and suffering, Secretary Granholm apparently feels it’s the right time to cast baseless accusations.”
In the interview, Ms. Granholm acknowledged that the reason for the collapse remains unknown while stressing the need for infrastructure projects aimed at shoring up coastal areas.
“We’ll have to wait to see what the analysis is for this building, but issue about resiliency, and making sure we adapt to this changing climate, that’s going to means levees need to be built, that means sea walls need to be built, that means infrastructure needs to be built,” she said.
National Review editor Rich Lowry tweeted, “There’s nothing that can’t be blamed on climate change,” while RedState’s Bonchie said her comments were “Absolutely ghoulish.”
Absolutely ghoulish https://t.co/MgfaTcVvLC
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) June 29, 2021
Young America’s Foundation tweeted: “Let’s work to find survivors and clean up the damage before we blame an accident on anyone or anything. Shameful, @JenGranholm.”
“Even scarier than her misinformed views is her willingness to put them forward without a shred of evidence,” Mr. Behrens said.
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden are scheduled to travel Thursday to the Surfside area to meet with family members of the victims and first responders.
Ms. Levine Cava called the tragedy “the single largest non-hurricane emergency operation the state of Florida has ever seen.”
Read rest at Washington Times
It were the rising sea levels what done it…
Blame everything on Global Warming/Climate Change like they always do like with Hurricanes Katrina,Sandy,Harvey and Irma Yes many liberals are that stupid
Some competent engineers have been doing a great job describing the inherent problems with lift-slab structures. The stressed slabs are tensioned using a system of cables that cannot be accessed or replaced. It’s just a matter of time until enough cables fail, likely in a small but growing cascade, and the whole thing comes down. They also state that human remains would likely be more of a thin cooked film between the fallen slabs. There are likely many more dead in the rubble than estimated. It does indeed look like a controlled demolition, but that is the nature of the structure. The fact that the computer security mogul who died recently had a penthouse up there is suspicious but there is no reason for such speculation with a 40-year-old structure.
It is not possible to describe the mendacity and reactionary shallowness of team Biden:
They set a new low daily.
The article is right on showing that Jennifer Granholm has very low ethics in using the condominium collapse for political purposes. This is an example of the type of government that Biden and his handles have installed. Granholm also repeated a common lie, “We know that we’re losing inches and inches of beaches.” Sea level has been rising since the end of the mini-ice age and is currently doing so at a rate between 1.5 and 2.5 millimeters a year.
Very low ethics? Personally anyone who uses death and disaster for political advantage doesn’t have one iota of ethics, The word I would use would be mercenary!
A whole slew of blonde jokes come to mind. She is deserving of them all.
To the former governor of Michigan, the fluctuations in the Great Lakes levels and the oceans are not related. I’d accuse her of lying, but she’s too stoned on politics to be held liable.
I was about to ask just how much ocean coastline Michigan had.
She could talk about hard-boiling eggs, and I wouldn’t believe a word she says.
If you can blame everything on some nonsense like global warming, then no one has to actually think or analyze anything. It becomes an automatic parrot response.
It was poorly built with no steel frame. That is the problem.
Jun 24, 2021 Video shows South Florida building collapse
Here’s a view of the Champlain Towers South collapse, as seen from a neighboring building. Via WSVN.
https://youtu.be/KR29pLccutY
Blame everything on Global Warming/Climate Change Yes liberals are that stupid