On November 30, 2012, Fox Business host Stuart Varney, citing “hard” and “authoritative” evidence of human-caused climate change in the journal Science, expressed horror over the idea that President Obama would use this evidence to push for a federal carbon tax.

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D. R. Tucker is a Massachusetts-based journalist who has served as the weekend contributor for the Washington Monthly since May 2014. He has also written for the Huffington Post, the Washington Spectator, the Metrowest Daily News, investigative journalist...