Sounds like someone might be worried about a primary opponent from the right:
http://www.eenews.net/...
Climate change isn't caused by industrial greenhouse gas emissions, Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said yesterday, citing evidence that Greenland was once green -- and presenting his strongest disavowal of the prevailing scientific view linking human activity to rising temperatures and sea level.
Kirk's comments come ahead of a Senate vote series later this month that Democrats are hoping to use to create political headaches for the new Republican majority, especially embattled moderates like Kirk who are up for re-election next year in traditionally blue states.
While he was a member of the House representing a suburban district north of Chicago, Kirk was one of just eight Republicans to vote for cap-and-trade legislation in 2009. Although he renounced that vote soon after launching his 2010 Senate campaign and has been critical of the Obama administration's climate regulations, Kirk remained supportive of policies to advance clean energy development and did not overtly question the prevailing view of most climate scientists.
That changed yesterday, in a brief exchange with E&E Daily in which Kirk lamented that "political correctness took over climate science," dismissed scientists' view that greenhouse gas emissions are linked to consequences like rising temperatures and said the problem is not one that should be addressed through government policy.
"We had the previous warming period, which was called the global optimum, and the best way to talk about that is when Leif Erickson went west from his home, he discovered a landmass that he called Greenland, because it was," Kirk said after Senate Republicans' first weekly caucus lunch. "And that was called the global optimum, because the planet was much warmer. By calling Greenland 'green land,' we know that the climate has been changing pretty regularly within recorded memory." - E&E Publishing, 1/8/15
Kirk's timing couldn't be more fitting, especially with the big vote for the Keystone XL Pipeline coming up. Kirk also went on to criticize the 1997 Kyoto Protocol:
"I actually served as a small part of the U.S. delegation to the Kyoto climate change talks. I have lived and breathed Kyoto," he said. "And Kyoto stands for the principle, as you know, that all developing country emissions don't count. I would say that Mother Nature disagrees with that Kyoto ruling."
Pressed specifically on the link between human activity and climate change, Kirk offered the Greenland observation. In the brief exchange, he also noted that after voting for carbon cap-and-trade legislation in the House that he would not do so in the Senate, and he said that is "not too much" of a problem policymakers should concern themselves with. He then disappeared behind closing elevator doors.
When Kirk came to the Senate, he was singing a different tune regarding climate change saying that climate change was a "long-term" concern and called for investing more in alternative energy innovation. His recent remarks and support for the Keystone XL Pipeline aren't going to win him over any votes and he may face serious backlash in 2016. Especially since he's a top target for Democrats.