House Minority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise appeared to avoid directly answering a climate change question Friday morning, declaring that the planet fluctuates in temperature but declining to say if Republicans have a plan to deal with the issue.
The Louisiana Republican was on "CBS This Morning" and had a back and forth with co-anchor Tony Dokoupil about the issue that has morphed into a political one.
"Scientists have agreed that climate change is a catastrophic risk, do you have a plan, as some other members of your party are beginning to address it?" Dokoupil asked.
Scalise replied, "First of all, we do know that the earth's temperature changes — it goes up and down."
Dokoupil then asked, "So you don't accept the science?"
Scalise then noted that scientists saw a cooling trend 40 years ago.
"In the 1970s, they said we were entering a new cooling period," he said.
"Your own scientists say [global warming is] manmade," Dokoupil countered.
Regarding severe weather that has struck the United States in recent years, particularly along the Gulf coast in the form of hurricanes and devastating floods, Scalise indicated that money earned from oil drilling is being used for cleanup purposes.
"Let me tell you what we're doing — we're actually taking revenues from drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and using that to rebuild land to rebuild our coast," he said. "I think it's a real important step to show people how to take ownership of the problem that they have in their own community."
This week, meanwhile, the Pentagon submitted to lawmakers a list of 46 U.S. military bases that are most threatened by climate change. The list included a base in Japan, three in Hawaii, and two in Guam. The rest are in the continental U.S. and include Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, the largest naval base in the world.
Recently uncovered emails indicated that a Trump administration official has sought input from an outside group that does not believe climate change is real.