Janine Wolf, Republican candidate for House District 66, calls climate change a "lie"
"...I beg you to do your own research. There is no empirical study showing that fossil fuel usage is causing the climate to change," said Wolf. "There is none."
Janine Wolf’s words on climate change were alarming, and baffling.
“All was well, then came the climate alarmists and their promises of ruin. Every storm was a gotcha,” said Wolf, a Republican running for House District 66 [Barrington and East Providence] against incumbent Democrat Jennifer Boylan. “Every shift in the beachscape a sign of impending calamity. It all proved the theory, they claimed, except that we've been dealing with these things in the same proportion for the past century. The climate may even be considered better now if we consider the 1938 New England hurricane and the immense flood that buried Providence in 13 feet of water. We've been 85 years without such a calamity.”
Wolf was responding to a question from reporter Scott Pickering, General Manager of East Bay Newspapers, who was moderating a voter’s forum sponsored League of Women Voters on Monday at the Barrington Public Library. This was the first of three forums held Monday evening, the other two featured candidates running for Barrington Town Council and Barrington School Committee.1
“I wish that we could please stop scaring the children about this issue. It is a needless fear that stresses them in an already stressful phase of life. We all have access to empirical data showing that climate is not changing any more dramatically than it always has. Take, for example, the polar bear population, which is higher than at any time since we started counting polar bears,”2 continued Wolf, quickly spiraling into conspiracy theory, anti-science and threats of future population control. “This will likely sound wrong to this group, but I beg you to do your own research. There is no empirical study showing that fossil fuel usage is causing the climate to change. There is none.3
“Why would the powers that be perpetrate such a lie? Because it's how they destroy your claim to freedom - freedom to choose your own path, spend your money as you wish, and defend your rights. You will feel too guilty for the damage that they tell you you have done and you are continuing to do to the earth. You will pay them carbon taxes to fix it on your behalf. Taxes that you don't owe towards damages you haven't done to people who have no intention to fix anything but only to sell you expensive products and collect your guilt money. What will be the next boondoggle for these profiteering schemers? Maybe next you'll be told that you have too many grandchildren and must pay a fine for your share of overpopulation. It seems entirely in line with the language coming out of the very source of the climate messaging.”
Just to be clear, climate change is real, but many Americans do not believe it.
Here’s the entire House District 66 forum, edited for clarity:
Jennifer Boylan: I am a Democrat and I'm running for reelection to represent House District 66 in the Rhode Island General Assembly which includes Riverside and Barrington. I have a strong understanding of our community and experience with collaboration and making change. Before being elected, I was an advocate for common sense gun laws for a decade and I also advocated to codify Roe v. Wade here in Rhode Island. I took the skills that I learned as an advocate and put them to work when I became a lawmaker two years ago. I have a track record of working hard for my community. I have championed and passed legislation to expand voter access, reform school safety drills, protect the environment, and combat climate change. I want to continue in my role as a state Rep so I can press ahead on issues critical to Rhode Island's future - climate change, cleaner, healthy, healthier renewable energy sources, microplastics, assault weapons, reproductive rights, and small businesses.
Janine Wolf: I'm a lifetime Rhode Islander and a 25-year Barrington resident. I raised my three daughters in town, some of that as a single parent. I have an extensive professional background in computer information systems and software. I've spent the last two years advocating against particularly onerous policies in Barrington and decided that the root cause of the issues plaguing local communities is at the state level. So I intend to bring my fight there. I am not afraid to call out bad policy when I see it, [and] not afraid of swimming upstream. Unlike my opponent, I'm not obligated to adhere to any national party positions. I am not in this race to advocate for anything but this district's citizens. My opinions are formed from living as a Rhode Islander [and] understanding Rhode Island's culture and people. They're not open to the persuasions of special interest groups or party bosses.
My goal in the General Assembly is to free working Rhode Islanders from the crippling yoke of the overgrown Rhode Island government which funnels billions of their tax dollars through a panoply of social services providing NGOs delivering, free of charge, all manner of health and human service benefits to non-American newcomers - newcomers who would have been trafficked here by still more taxpayer funded NGOs. Lack of oversight has created these profligate giveaways at the cost of Rhode Island's struggling working citizens. It is time to wind it back.
Scott Pickering: If elected to serve in the General Assembly for the next term, what is the one bill you will work hardest to pass in the next session?
Jennifer Boylan: The bill that I'll work hardest to pass is a bill that I passed last session, but that failed to move in the Senate. This is a crime-solving bill. I worked with folks from the Rhode Island State Crime Laboratory on this bill, as well as experts from around the country on a bill that would require law enforcement to use a system called NIBIN, which is a national integrated ballistics imaging network that allows fingerprinting of bullets. This is an important crime-solving technique for guns suspected of crimes. I passed this bill. I worked so hard on it. I introduced it my first year [and] didn't pass. My second year it passed in the House [but] I feel like it [was] left on the table. It's an important bill. I have a fantastic Senate partner on it and I'm looking forward to finishing the job next session.
Janine Wolf: In the last few election cycles what Democrats call voting access has undergone what can only be described as an embarrassment... In the state of Rhode Island, every guardrail to election integrity has been declared an impediment to voting access and removed - while other states take lessons from 2020 and attempt to tighten their integrity-reinforcing processes. I testified in 2022 against almost every change that was being proposed in the Let Rhode Island Vote Act because I had put in the time in and understood Rhode Island election laws, procedures, infrastructure, and systems. What I found were serious and ill-enforced ballot custody procedures, dubiously secure networks, and unauditable and barely documented systems. When I get to the General Assembly, the first thing I'm going do is address election integrity issues.
Scott Pickering: In recent years, the Rhode Island General Assembly has passed several laws related to firearms regulations including banning ghost guns and high capacity magazines, disarming domestic abusers, prohibiting straw purchases, and prohibiting guns on school property. Do you support these new laws? Do you believe there should be additional gun regulations in Rhode Island?
Janine Wolf: I support some of those laws. It's quite a long list, but beefed up efforts by law enforcement toward curtailing gun violence and keeping criminals off the streets once they are apprehended are essential to reducing the level of criminal gun violence in our communities. Targeting the source of illegal street guns is also crucial to the safety of our neighborhoods. These solutions seem obvious but somehow are never given the resources needed to get ahead of the problem. This year, as in every other election year, we find that despite there being exactly zero communities whose health and safety have been adversely impacted by law-abiding gun owners, we find the rights of law-abiding gun owners in the crosshairs - as if removing their rights would somehow curb the illegal street behavior that is completely unrelated to them. All mass murders are symptoms of mental health crises gone untreated. This nation has epidemic levels of mental health, illness, and suicide. Trying to restrict the gun rights of law abiding citizens has been tried and tried again. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that states trying to limit citizens’ Second Amendment rights are acting unconstitutionally.
Jennifer Boylan: I had a front row seat to the passage of all the bills that were listed. I've been going to the State House since the Sandy Hook School shooting. It's really what propelled me to get involved in lawmaking and to pay close attention to our state's gun laws as well as our nation's gun laws. We have over 40,000 deaths from guns every year. It's shameful. It doesn't have to be that way. We know that strong gun laws work and I'm very proud of the work we've done in the General Assembly and the work that I did as an advocate to pass all those bills into law. I was very proud to vote for the secure storage bill that we passed this year. People in other countries suffer from mental health crises, but they don't have the problem with gun violence that we have here in our country. My priority if reelected will be to support and pass the assault weapons ban. It's past time. It's been in committee for going on 12 years.
Janine Wolf: Ms. Boylan is in Rhode Island's General Assembly as a representative of the Democrat Party's national initiatives. Foremost of these is incremental chipping away at the constitutionally protected, unimpingable right of American citizens to arm themselves in any way that they see fit. She will relentlessly chip away at that issue until the United States, like Australia, sees the confiscation of all guns from citizens. For Ms. Boylan and her fellow activists, only the government should have guns and that is a recipe for every governmental abuse that led to the American Revolution.
Jennifer Boylan: I'm not coming for everyone's guns, but I do firmly believe that with rights come responsibility. We regulate certain types of firearms in our country. We don't get to walk around with fully automatic rifles that are extremely hard to get. I would not be taking everyone's guns. That's not my end game. My end game is to end gun violence.
Scott Pickering: Turning to the state budget, do you agree with how Rhode Island is spending nearly $14 billion annually? Does the state have the right priorities and focus or would you work to shift how and where the state's resources are allocated?
Jennifer Boylan: I'm proud of the budget we passed this year. I thought it struck a good balance. I was pleased with some of the changes that were made towards the end of the session. We came through for the schools. We did things like making the green bond greener. We did a lot of things towards the end of the session. We worked hard to get a good budget and I am proud of the direction we're going. My biggest concerns with things I'd like to see different are not necessarily budgetary. My biggest concern right now is climate change and working on that issue is my number one priority.
Janine Wolf: The amount of money taken from each citizen's rightful earnings has never ceased increasing in Rhode Island. Think about that. With genius levels of creativity, new claims of obligation are laid on us by the legislature and administration. I've heard it said that housing takes the first bite out of everyone's paycheck, but that's false. Before any wage earner receives a penny of their compensation, the government reaches directly and takes an ever increasing portion. If you compare the size of the government to 10 years ago, you might be fooled into believing that the government has not grown - its published payroll has been relatively static, but the payroll ignores the gigantic gaping funnels through which your tax dollars are passed to fund the billions that are sent to a legion of NGOs established to disperse our tax dollars without oversight. The NGOs then house, educate, vocationally train, feed, and provide healthcare, transportation, job placement, and education to a steady stream of aspiring Americans called “residents” of all ages - all brought to the state to fill the roles the corporations want them. The [NGOs] have heartwarming names that sound altruistic and kind, but they are tools for citizen' theft. I think that the State of Rhode Island needs to get out of the business of trafficking, housing, and social services for people who are not the tax pay base of this state. It's a delusion for us to think that the budget stayed the same in the state. It has grown astronomically.
Jennifer Boylan: I have a different view of things. I believe in a strong social safety net [an] that people need a hand. We haven't raised taxes of late. We have critical services that need to be paid for.
Scott Pickering: Should the General Assembly be doing more to address the critical shortage of primary care, mental health, and medical providers in the state? If so, what should be done?
Janine Wolf: The reason we have a shortage of primary care providers is compensation, and the compensation is allowed to be determined by the insurance companies. My daughter's pediatrician 20 years ago complained that they couldn't get compensated enough and that he wouldn't recommend his son go to medical school. We have the power in the state to control what kind of powers the insurance companies have and insurance companies are another example of the corporations [that] the legislative body in the state does their bidding. The people are not being served by that policy. The doctors are not being served by allowing the insurance companies to rule the roost.
Jennifer Boylan: Healthcare is a human right. Many factors combined over a long period to get us to where we are today with our primary care shortage so it's going to take many factors - many different solutions in tandem - to get us out of this problem. One thing we know is that when people are educated in a state, they tend to stay there. We know that Brown University is not training physicians to practice primary care and stay here in Rhode Island. Therefore, we have a study commission, just starting now, to explore the idea of a University of Rhode Island Medical School. We need to give the study commission time to do their work and figure out what their recommendations are going to be. We have been doing many things to address healthcare and one of the things we did this past year was budget for increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates.
Scott Pickering: How can the General Assembly help the state be ready for climate change?
Jennifer Boylan: This is one of my top priority areas. We know that we need to be prepared for extreme weather, flooding, and coastal erosion and that climate change is, at root, caused by burning fossil fuels. I have introduced several bills to combat climate change and I've also supported my colleagues in the House with other good bills that will help to address climate change.
In my first year in office, I introduced the Solar Neighborhoods Act, which is a bill modeled after California law that would mandate solar panels on all new construction. I also support Representative Rebecca Kislak's bill, a building decarbonization act that did not pass the session - it's still being worked on - but hopefully, it will pass next year. I have a Lead by Example bill that would mandate that the state government does all the things that we'd like the private sector to do: address their building's carbon emissions with solar and infrastructure, eliminate single-use plastics in its buildings and property, and to do all the things we ask of others, [like] compost, recycle, and be efficient with their energy. I also have a bill that would fund climate education in schools. I was a strong supporter of funding RIPTA and I would like to implement the Transit Master Plan and the Bicycle Mobility Plan. I'd like to see us at the General Assembly acting with more urgency in all of these areas. Every year a bunch of lawmakers that are interested in this issue introduce a whole host of bills. It's going to take the passing of many of the bills to get us to meet our Act on Climate goals and I hope that we can act with more urgency along these lines.
Janine Wolf: Being a coastal state has always meant that we needed to be ready to shore up this corner of our coastal infrastructure or that storms come and go. Beaches shift. Runnoff has been considered and perpetually monitored in the name of ecological good stewardship. We as a state have always monitored these things and we have come up with the appropriate resources as needed. The benefit of living close to the waterfront is widely appreciated as there will be extra efforts that it demands. All was well, then came the climate alarmists and their promises of ruin. Every storm was a gotcha. Every shift in the beachscape a sign of impending calamity. It all proved the theory, they claimed, except that we've been dealing with these things in the same proportion for the past century. The climate may even be considered better now if we consider the 1938 New England hurricane and the immense flood that buried Providence in 13 feet of water. We've been 85 years without such a calamity.
I wish that we could please stop scaring the children about this issue. It is needless fear that stresses them in an already stressful phase of life. We all have access to empirical data that shows that climate is not changing any more dramatically than it always has. Take, for example, the polar bear population, which is higher than at any time since we started counting polar bears.
This will likely sound wrong to this group, but I beg you to do your research. There is no empirical study showing that fossil fuel usage is causing the climate to change. There is none. Why would the powers that be perpetrate such a lie? Because it's how they destroy your claim to freedom - freedom to choose your path, spend your money as you wish, and defend your rights. You will feel too guilty for the damage that they tell you you have done and are continuing to do to the earth. You will pay them carbon taxes to fix it on your behalf. Taxes that you don't owe towards damages you haven't done to people who have no intention to fix anything but only to sell you expensive products and collect your guilt money. What will be the next boondoggle for these profiteering schemers? Maybe next you'll be told that you have too many grandchildren and must pay a fine for your share of overpopulation. It seems entirely in line with the language coming out of the very source of the climate messaging.
Scott Pickering: Do you approve of the job done by Governor Daniel McKee and Department of Transportation director Peter Alviti regarding the Washington Bridge failure?
Janine Wolf: No issue brings home the point that I'm trying to convey here today [than] the Washington Bridge situation. [It] is my biggest in-kind campaign contributor. We cannot go on like this as a state [and] as adults with responsibility for the future. Business [and] politics as usual is unthinkable. Nine and a half months in the demolition appears to be at about seven or eight percent. Work is stopped. One of the at-fault fraudulent contractors was hired for the job, which was halted because they had to preserve evidence. It's right out of a standup routine. News today was that the state was looking to add the job to the already in process 13 bridge contract with Skanska. That contract itself was awarded without competitive bidding. What kind of deal do you think we got on that? Are we thinking we'll get a good deal by adding this new bridge to the project? How long until they get around to this bridge, number 15 on their project list? The notion of any voter choosing to keep this same party - the same power structure - in power - that is currently running the ship aground - is something I cannot comprehend.
Jennifer Boylan: All of us are feeling the pain of driving across this bridge. Just like all of you, I'm stuck in traffic. I've had to plan accordingly, [and] adjust my schedule to account for additional travel time.
I am also outraged by it. People's lives were disrupted. Small businesses are suffering and it's unacceptable. I see it as a failure of the administration and I think we all deserve answers. We deserve to know what steps are being taken to ensure that it will never happen again. We have, in the General Assembly, done several things in the wake of this bridge closure. We've had an oversight hearing and I'm very hopeful that in January or February, we'll be doing another one, if not more. Immediately after the bridge was closed, the East Bay lawmakers in the General Assembly asked for - demanded quite frankly - that we would have weekly briefings with Director Alviti.
We met with him today. We now meet with him regularly. It may be every three weeks, something like that. We meet with him to ask our questions, express our concerns, hold him accountable, and pass on suggestions - both our suggestions as well as suggestions we received from constituents because sometimes people come to us with really good ideas and we serve as a conduit to pass them up the chain. In addition, we passed a bill in the General Assembly that mandates that the Department of Transportation provide us with monthly snapshot reports. This was because we felt like we weren't getting the data that we needed to see what was going on with travel times, accidents, et cetera. Those monthly snapshot reports are available to all of us. Everyone can look at them. Just go to Washingtonbridge.com and you can look them up. They're updated every month.
And last, we've advocated for grants for small businesses. Initially, loans were what was being offered [but] small business owners don't need loans. They need grants. That program is open right now for small businesses.
Scott Pickering: We're now moving to closing statements.
Janine Wolf: Things need to change in this state. Nothing is going to change by reinstalling another ruling party mouthpiece passing off social engineering agenda items as the most important issues to the population of constituents who can't possibly make ends meet anymore. The corruption passing itself off as ineptitude is breaking the back of Rhode Island citizens. Look at the conversations around the closed bridge. People are beyond disgusted. They were disgusted 20 years ago. It never changes. The endless servicing of corporate interests over those of citizens must end. We need to work together to end it, but I will stand in the fray and speak for the working citizens of this state. We need to believe that we can turn things around, and that the endlessly creative ways of assuming more and more of the money we earn while ignoring our needs can be stopped and reversed, but we cannot have hope without cleaning out the party players - those invested in keeping things in the state working exactly the way they are now while breathlessly fearmongering about issues that are not primary and fundamental to getting through your day, paying your rent or mortgage, and keeping yourself healthy.
Jennifer Boylan: I seek reelection because I'm an experienced, proven leader who can effectively represent the needs and values of the people of Riverside and Barrington. As a first term lawmaker, I was appointed by the Speaker of the House to chair a study commission on school safety drills. This commission included stakeholders from public safety and education. The work resulted in a law to change how Rhode Island K through 12 students and their teachers prepare for emergencies in a more trauma-informed and age-appropriate manner.
And I'm just getting started. In my first term in office, I've championed and helped pass a wide range of bills into law - from a bill that gives 17-year-olds the right to vote in a primary as long as they're 18 by the general to modernizing our alcoholism statutes to environmental protections to economic development and business tax reduction. In 2025, I hope to continue to serve constituents who need help navigating our government systems and serve the greater good by improving our laws and our state government for the voters of Riverside and Barrington. I ask for your votes. Please send me back to the Rhode Island General Assembly in November.
Here’s the video:
The second forum was for Barrington Town Council and featured independents Brian Hughes, Derick Daley, and Bryan Hoffman and Democrats Jordan Jancosek, Liana Cassar, and Kerry O'Neill. The third forum, for Barrington School Committee featured independents Karen Rasnick and Elizabeth Singh and Democrats Megan Douglas, Lisa Nelson, and Timothy McNamara.
The last thing this state needs is a climate change denier. If taught properly, no child needs to be alarmed by this. Just educated on the changes we will see and how to adapt as we try to mitigate
I wondered if Ms. Wolf's statements were written by a Heritage-like national group.