At his Jackson County town hall, Congressman Cliff Bentz revealed misunderstanding of science and rejection of public opinion.
Bentz’s response to a request for action on climate change focused on adaptation to change rather than reducing emissions. He argued that since decades of warming are inevitable even if we stopped emissions today, we should downplay reducing emissions. He seemed to misunderstand the fact that continuing and increasing emissions will just make the catastrophe worse.
Bentz argued against removal of Snake River dams with anecdotal stories about fish survival and denying the wealth of scientific evidence urging the dams’ removal to protect multiple fish species, including iconic salmon.
Bentz promoted nuclear power, especially the small modular nuclear reactors proposed by NuScale Power, despite the evidence that genuine clean renewable energy is available to supply our needs, full life cycle assessment reveals nuclear generation is not clean, and evidence questions its safety.
Finally, Bentz expressed strong opposition to efforts by our U.S. senators to protect 3,000 miles of our waterways using exaggeration about the miles to be protected and misinformation about the impact of protection on landowner property rights while ignoring public opinion polls that indicate some 80% of Oregonians favor waterway protection.
Donald Trump’s name emerged only once, when Bentz misrepresented the outcome of the tax cuts that Trump pushed through Congress, arguing that they raised revenue when tax data show the reverse.
It is disappointing that Congressman Bentz displays such a cavalier disregard for science and for the opinion of Oregonians in deciding which proposals to support or oppose.
Alan Journet
Jacksonville
