At a congressional hearing on public lands Wednesday, Utah Congressman Rob Bishop ripped into outdoor apparel manufacturer Patagonia.
Rep. Bishop, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Natural Resources, which oversees the subcommittee, has a longstanding beef with the brand and the two have often gone back and forth about the way public lands are used and/or developed in Utah.
During the hearing this week, the Natural Resources Committee sought testimony from experts, among them Patagonia’s director of Environmental Campaigns and Advocacy Hans Cole.
In his testimony, Cole detailed the negative effects of climate change and said his company is committed to switching to renewable energy sources to combat it. He also encouraged the government to do the same.
Following Cole’s testimony, Bishop went after him and his company:
“For example, the stuff that is made in China by your company, your company clearly put out the statement, ‘We’ve made the choice not to disengage with countries on the basis of their policies.’ … Amongst those policies, which the company now wishes to ignore, is: the internment and re-education of over a million Uyghur Muslims; routine jailing of environmental activists and civil rights campaigners; destroying over 3,000 acres of coral reefs in the South China Sea with runways, ports and military facilities; subsidizing long-range commercial fishing fleets that threaten the viability of fishing around the world; providing $36 billion in financing to developing countries for the construction of over 102 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants. In addition, just the Patagonia businesses in China, 65 percent of all those businesses are run on coal. If you’d actually done your work in America, the average in the United States is only 37 percent, which would be a lot nicer. Now in addition to that, the testimony you’ve given here has whole bunch of false narratives in there.”
Part 2/2 pic.twitter.com/xbqiLmg3FU
— Western Caucus (@westerncaucus) February 14, 2019
Following Bishop’s five-minute rant, the GOP’s House Natural Resources Committee Twitter account continued it.
.@patagonia won’t disengage from China and its authoritarian policies. However, Patagonia will disengage from Utah because our State’s elected representatives want Utahans to have a greater say in the management of their federal lands. Sad!
— Natural Resources GOP (@NatResources) February 13, 2019
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,@patagonia is still lying to you.https://t.co/KKewjA7BtQThe below is still true too.#ValentinesDay https://t.co/tlmRd2igsw
— Natural Resources GOP (@NatResources) February 14, 2019
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