What Climate Change? Rand Paul Says Hillary Clinton Should Focus on Terrorism, Not Clean Energy

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas yesterday and said that global climate change is quite real and "the most consequential, urgent, sweeping collection of challenges" faced by the nation and the world.

"The data is unforgiving," Clinton told the audience. "No matter what the deniers try to assert. Sea levels are rising. Ice caps are melting. Storms, droughts and wildfires are wreaking havoc."

"If we come together to make the hard choices, the smart investment in infrastructure, technology and environmental protection, America can be the clean-energy superpower," she said.

But Sen. Rand Paul, a possible opponent in the 2016 presidential election, chided Clinton’s call for green energy and fighting climate change. The Kentucky Republican told Fox News today that Clinton should be focused on terrorism and her comments about climate change shows that she does not have what it takes to be president.

“For her to be out there saying that the biggest threat to our safety and to our well-being is climate change, I think, goes to the heart of the matter or whether or not she has the wisdom to lead the country, which I think it’s obvious that she doesn’t,” said Paul on the news channel’s America’s Newsroom show this morning.

“I don’t think we really want a commander-in-chief who’s battling climate change instead of terrorism,” said Paul.

Paul continued to bash Clinton over her environmental priorities and asked "whether she has the wisdom to lead the country — which I think it's obvious that she doesn't."

Sen. Paul has been criticized for being a climate change denier and for saying the U.S. should not have a role in trying to slow or stabilize its progress. In an interview earlier this year, Sen. Paul brushed off climate change, saying that the Earth goes such periods and he’s “not sure anybody exactly knows why.”

Clinton was joined at the event by Senate Majority Leader Harry, Reid and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee for president in 2016, also applauded Nevada for being chosen by Tesla for the location of its $5 billion “gigafactory,” which was announced earlier yesterday. Earlier in the day, the state was also awarded a federal loan guarantee to build a $266 million biofuel production plant. Both the Tesla factory and the biofuel plant will be located in Storey County in northern Nevada.

Nevada beat out several western states to get the factory, which will be 10 million square feet in size. The plant is slated to be operational by 2017 and will employ up to 6,500 workers. The Tesla factory will likely produce both lithium and a next generation carbon battery for its vehicles.