GOP: Copenhagen could 'destroy millions of American jobs'

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) slammed Democratic climate-change legislation Saturday just as President Barack Obama prepares to trek to an international conference in Copehnagen.

In the weekly Republican address, Blackburn said the Copenhagen summit could result in emissions mandates that "would destroy millions of American jobs and damage our economic competitiveness for decades to come."

The EPA and Democrats in Congress, she argued, would heed those mandates by imposing new regulations on American businesses.

"With Americans already facing double-digit unemployment, there could not be a worse time to unilaterally disarm our engines of job creation and economic growth," she said.

Environmentalists hope that the conference in Copenhagen will result in a political agreement to work toward broad emissions reductions across the globe. Democrats say cap-and-trade legislation will create "green jobs" while reducing greenhouse-gas levels.

Blackburn said the "Climate Gate" e-mails show that scientists have fudged the evidence on global warming in order to "bully citizens and lawmakers into supporting job-killing energy tax schemes."

"This scandal raises serious questions about Democrats’ climate control plans, questions that deserve a transparent investigation – not a rush to judgment – by the bureaucrats in Copenhagen," the Tennessee Republican said.

Believers in climate change say the e-mails are taken out of context and at worst show only individual cases of malfeasance.

---