Mike Pence Won’t Say If He Views Climate Change Crisis As Threat To U.S. [VIDEO]

Vice President Mike Pence refused to explicitly say in an interview Sunday if he considers the global crisis surrounding climate change a threat to the United States.

Pence routinely deflected questions on the subject during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

“We’ll always follow the science on that in this administration,” said Pence.

Dozens of scientists agree that climate change is man-made and that it is a growing threat to the entire world. Nevertheless, President Donald Trump has repeatedly dismissed these warnings as “fake news.”

“What we won’t do, and the [Obama’s] Clean Power Plan was all about that, was hamstringing energy in this country, raising the cost of utility rates for working families across this country,” Pence added in his interview.

After Tapper asked Pence on his own personal view of the severity of global warming, the vice president said: “I think the answer to that is going to be based upon the science.” Tapper had cited several national intelligence agencies’ assessments of the threat of climate change.

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“Well the science says yes,” Tapper said. “I’m asking you what you think.”

“Well, there’s many in the science that debate that,” Pence replied.

Last week, the White House announced its plan to roll back a Barack Obama-era initiative to curb coal-fired power plant emissions and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Tapper also corrected Pence after the vice president claimed the United States has the “cleanest air and water in the world.” The U.S. actually ranks 10th in the world for air quality and 29th for water and sanitation, per the 2018 Environmental Performance Index.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that should states be permitted to establish their own carbon emissions standards for coal-fired power plants, up to 1,400 more premature deaths could occur by 2030.