Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is facing criticism from Republican lawmakers and climate analysts over his recent comments linking severe weather events and transportation crises to climate change.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is facing backlash from GOP lawmakers and some climate analysts for attributing recent transportation incidents to climate change, with critics arguing that his statements are politically motivated and not supported by data.
During an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," Buttigieg claimed that the effects of climate change are already upon us in terms of our transportation, citing extreme weather events like heat waves and hurricanes and increased turbulence on airplanes.
However, critics argue that Buttigieg is using climate change as a scapegoat for systemic issues within the transportation system.
Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, accused Buttigieg of "playing identity politics to the detriment of the American people."
"Buttigieg’s latest comments are contradicted by the National Transportation Safety Board and just another example of how out of touch he is with hardworking Americans," Bean said.
Energy analyst Alex Epstein, a former Cato Institute scholar and the author of "Fossil Future," told Fox News Digital that Buttigieg is wrongly attributing recent crises to climate change.
"Climate itself is not meaningfully affecting transportation, but terrible climate policy, including that of Pete Buttigieg," Epstein said. "For example, the EPA's new pollution standards constitute a de facto EV mandate that will force Americans to drive inferior cars and place massive new demand for reliable electricity on an already failing grid."
Another climate expert, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, the director of the Heritage Foundation Center for Energy, Climate and the Environment, pointed to the increase in overall airline flights as a reason for increased turbulence.
"One reason that more turbulence is recorded is that there are more flights," Furchtgott-Roth said. "Even if the United States stopped using all fossil fuels right now, it would only make a difference of 2/10 of one degree centigrade by the year 2100, government models show. There's no way that these changes can be attributed to climate change."
Furchtgott-Roth also attributed the prevalence of social media and connectivity on planes to people being able to report in-flight issues almost instantly.
However, the Department of Transportation pushed back on critics and pointed Fox News Digital to a 2019 study in Nature magazine that discussed connections between climate change and airline turbulence.
A representative for the department cited the study's co-author, University of Reading atmospheric science professor Paul Williams, as saying study organizers had accumulated a large body of scientific evidence now that turbulence is increasing because of climate change.
"An invisible form called clear-air turbulence is generated by wind shear, which, because of climate change, is now 15% stronger than in the 1970s. We expect a further strengthening of the wind shear in the coming decades, perhaps doubling or tripling the amount of severe turbulence," Williams wrote.
Requests for comment from the House Transportation Committee's top Republican, Sam Graves of Missouri, and top Democrat, Rick Larsen of Washington, were not returned.
Calls placed to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., chair of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, were not returned at press time.
