Obama Calls Out Climate Deniers

The Hill reports:

President Obama called out Capitol Hill’s “climate change deniers” Wednesday night at a Democratic fundraiser in California.

Obama, speaking at a San Francisco event for donors, called rising gasoline prices an economic drain on drivers and said curbing oil reliance is a “national security imperative.”

“And then there’s the environmental aspect of it. There are climate change deniers in Congress and when the economy gets tough, sometimes environmental issues drop from people’s radar screens,” Obama continued, speaking at the home of Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff.

“But I don’t think there’s any doubt that unless we are able to move forward in a serious way on clean energy, that we’re putting our children and our grandchildren at risk,” Obama added.

Obama also talked climate during his appearance at Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters earlier in the day, listing it among the challenges facing the nation.

“Internationally, we're seeing the sorts of changes that we haven't seen in a generation.  We've got certain challenges like energy and climate change that no one nation can solve but we're going to have to solve together,” Obama said. “And we don't yet have all the institutions that are in place in order to do that.”

Climate change has been on and off the menu in Obama’s remarks on energy this year, and some environmentalists want a more robust White House stance on the issue.