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At Wednesday’s debate, Ramaswamy said he was the “only candidate who’s not bought and paid for.” That couldn’t be further from the truth.

by Emily Atkin, Heated

At the first Republican presidential debate last week, most of the candidates struggled to explain their position on human-caused climate change.

But 38-year-old Vivek Ramaswamy came prepared.

“I’m the only candidate on stage who isn’t bought and paid for, so I can say this: The climate change agenda is a hoax,” he said.

“The anti-carbon agenda is the wet blanket on the economy,” he added. “And so the reality is, more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change.”

Vivek Ramaswamy at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)

These claims were, of course, baseless. As both The New York Times and Washington Post pointed out in fact checks, there is no data showing that people are dying from the transition to a renewable energy economy. (Asked by The New York Times to provide evidence for the claim, Ramaswamy sent a 2022 opinion article by prominent climate denier John Stossel.)

I’m not here today, though, to debunk Ramaswamy’s climate rhetoric. It is essentially just repackaged fossil fuel industry boosterism, which is a more sophisticated form of climate denial.

I’m here to tell you why Ramaswamy is promoting fossil fuel boosterism. He’s hoping it will make him, and his billionaire friends, even more rich.

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Environment and the Green New Deal