GMA’s Cuomo Touts ‘Innovative’ Europeans; Approves of High Gas Prices

Friday’s "Good Morning America" kicked off Earth Day with a push for liberal solutions to environmental issues such as climate change. And while weatherman Sam Champion reported on global warming in snow covered New York, GMA co-host Chris Cuomo appeared live from France to tout how far ahead that country is compared to America's envrionmental progress. In Paris, he noted approvingly, "the price of gas here is $6 a gallon to discourage guzzling."

Later in the piece, Cuomo agan touted the superior Europeans:  

Chris Cuomo: "Europe does have a lot of significant issues it has to deal with, like the United States. But they're much more innovative here in terms of figuring out what to do."

The ABC anchor made no mention of any possible downside to all this progress. For instance, the high cost of gas is achieved by heavy taxation, something which tends to discourage economic growth and results in high unemployment (almost 10 percent in France).

A transcript of the segment, which aired at 7:16am on April 20, follows:

Chris Cuomo: "Here I am in front of the famous Arc de Triomphe. And you're looking at a major environmental situation, the greenhouse gases caused by automobiles. But you're also looking at a solution here in Europe, smaller vehicles, more energy efficient. Many which use diesel fuel which is more efficient. And the price of gas here is $6 a gallon to discourage guzzling. A lot of big ideas and innovations coming out of Europe. We just got a recent revelation out of Norway. They're going to reduce emissions 30 percent by the year 2020. They also had a Europe wide lights out day. Here in the city of lights, that meant the Eiffel Tower went dim for five minutes. In that one day, France reduced its energy use by 1 percent, which is amazing. They've also changed all 20,000 light bulbs in the Eiffel Tower to make them more energy efficient and shut down And they shut down all the lights in the city at 1am just to save energy. Another important note here in France, now they're getting 80 percent of their energy for everything from nuclear power. Of course, that means no greenhouse emissions. That means a much cleaner environment, the air quality is better. In fact, the air quality in France, even in Paris, with all these cars and all the industry and all the people, is the cleanest in the industrialized world. Europe does have a lot of significant issues it has to deal with, like the United States. But they're much more innovative here in terms of figuring out what to do."