Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the Republican Party must stop the "name-calling" and take climate change seriously, the Washington Examiner reports.
"We have to have a better discussion about climate change and the responses to it," Murkowski, chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners' Winter Policy Summit on Wednesday.
"We have to not be afraid to use terms that some might say, that's politically charged. Why is it politically charged to say climate change?"
She said it's a "fact" that global temperatures are warming in response to man-made emissions of carbon dioxide — a position somewhat at odds with the Trump administration and many Republicans.
"It is a fact when we see habitats changing because temperatures are warmer," Murkowski said. "It is fact when sea ice that is multi-year ice is no longer in place where it has historically been."
She said she recently asked a group of high school students how to avoid the partisan political arguments over climate change.
"They said stop calling one another names," Murkowski said. "How simple and basic is that? Let us skip the name-calling and unproductive arguments and think about energy advances that are also climate solutions."
At the same time, she also said it is "unrealistic and counterproductive" to completely abandon the use of fossil fuels — and she defended opening part of an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil and natural gas drilling, The Examiner reported.
"We can absolutely continue to use hydrocarbons and critical minerals and protect the environment at the same time. We can do this."
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