CNBC anchor blasts cult of 'enviro-socialists'

CNBC Squawk Box co-host Joe Kernen on Friday bashed environmentalists for their beliefs on climate change.

Calling them “enviro-socialists,” he explained, “It is a cult. It is a bonafide cult.”

The comment came after speaking with former president and CEO of U.S. Operations at Shell Oil John Hofmeister, who argued the White House isn't currently pushing the transition from oil to natural gas as a transportation fuel hard enough.

“We're on the verge, Joe, of moving to a new higher institutional level on the price of oil because the world cannot produce more, much more than it’s producing today,” said Hofmeister, now the CEO of Citizens for Affordable Energy. “What we don't have are the enablers from the U.S. government to seriously shift some of the fuel demand from crude oil to natural gas, and we will look back in foolishness at the lack of leadership at the political level, not to spend any money, just to provide the enablers that enable the industry to build out a midstream and a downstream for natural gas.”

“You better just set your alarm clock for three years from now because you are not going to get a speech about natural gas and energy independence here,” Kernen answered, in reference to President Barack Obama’s speech on climate change on June 25. “You got a climate change speech. That’s what you got, and a big one.”

Calling that “foolishness,” Hofmeister suggested facing “climate change over time.”

Kernen shot back that Hofmeister didn't have a house on the coast to worry about.

"New York is going to be under 32 feet of water," Kernen said. "You better get with the program. You haven’t read my Twitter feed. There’s some problem with orcas and shark fins, and there’s a lot of things happening."

According to The Hill, Kernen has often used his Twitter account to clash with environmentalists, arguing that climate change is false. Media Matters also reported in June 2013 that more than half of CNBC's coverage of climate-related events was devoted to casting doubt on human influence on climate change.

Watch Kernen's interview with Hofmeister, aired Friday on CNBC, below:

Image via screencapture