Wednesday morning, an abbreviated interview from Marco Rubio’s time as Speaker of Florida’s House mysteriously surfaced and began bouncing its merry way through the political corners of the internet.
Judging solely on the content of the 2008 clip (which cuts off Rubio mid-sentence) the viewer is led to believe that way back in the day, Rubio advocated for carbon taxes and cap and trade. Basically, Al Gore, Jr.
First the clip:
It concludes with Rubio saying, “I am in favor of giving the Department of Environmental Protection a mandate that they go out and design a cap and trade or a carbon tax program, and bring it back to the legislature for ratification some time in the next…” and that’s where we’re left hanging.
There’s just one teency weency problem though — that’s not what Rubio said, at least not entirely.
Immediately following the end of the selectively edited (to borrow a phrase from our progressive friends) video clip, Rubio says:
“I am in favor of them [Department of Environmental Protection] designing it, I’m not in favor of them designing it and implementing it. I’m in favor of them designing it and then bringing it back to the legislature.” He goes on to say, “The way we’re going to clean up our environment, the way we’re going to lower carbon emissions is not through government mandates, it’s through the American innovator. And that’s what anything we do should be based upon. Not government mandates like they do in Europe and California.”
From what rank basement was this latest wanna-be hit job dusted off and let to roam free? That would be the one containing old Charlie Crist attack ads:
Rubio’s remarks in their complete, unedited, nothingburgerness can be viewed here.
In an op-ed published in the Miami Herald, penned by Marco Rubio in July of 2007, Rubio criticized Crist’s proposed energy mandates saying, “the government mandates he has proposed will not only fail to achieve their desired result, they carry actual negative consequences.”
As an alternative to mandates, Rubio proposed tax incentives. Those incentives were passed by Florida’s house and vetoed by then Gov. Crist. “The potential to integrate greener approaches into the fabric of Florida’s economy is unlimited, but we must be willing to embrace the free-market approach – not European-style big government mandates,” Rubio wrote.
Floridians who were involved in the fight against cap and trade at the time provide further context.
Like this tweet from 2010:
Or this:
This too:
And also this little story:
Recycled Cap and Trade Attack Rating: LAME and a half.
Follow Kemberlee on Twitter @kemberleekaye
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