GOP senator calls for ‘balance’ after climate change report

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) on Sunday called for “balance” in responding to heightened concerns that the U.S. may face large-scale disasters due to climate change.

Congress is scrambling to respond to a bombshell report on climate change that the Trump administration released over the holiday weekend. The congressionally mandated report recommends drastically reducing carbon emissions and predicts consequences, if the U.S. does not do so, that range from mass heat-related deaths to damaging weather that could eat up to a tenth of America’s gross domestic product by 2100.

{mosads}Democrats have promised to aggressively address climate change in the next Congress, where they will take over the majority. The report provides more ammunition for Democratic calls to action.

But Republicans are urging caution rather than a quick response.

“Any time we are putting regulation out, we need to consider impact to American industry and jobs,” Ernst said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We want to make sure that it makes sense going forward. There is a balance that can be struck there.”

She pointed to her own state as an example.

“Again, in Iowa, as a state, we have set that standard. And it hasn’t been by mandating. It has been by incentivizing,” she said. “The rest of the states can do the same.”