With their new climate plan, Republicans in Congress are ushering in a new era for their party and the environmental movement.
With their new climate plan, Republicans in Congress are ushering in a new era for their party and the environmental movement.
L ook for shades of green in the red wave this November. This month, in an announcement that would have been hard to imagine just a year ago, House GOP leaders unveiled a six-point plan to beat climate change. While President Biden and his allies in Congress have failed to pass massive climate legislation that would have exacerbated inflation, Democrats have managed to implement anti-American energy policies that have discouraged domestic energy production, hurt our energy security, and sent prices into the stratosphere — without even lowering emissions.
Republicans, on the other hand, have a strategy to ease Americans’ pain at the pump while ushering in a U.S. energy renaissance that will restore our status as an energy superpower and reduce global carbon emissions. It’s a bold strategy, and a smart one.
Changing the narrative on climate change is no small task for Republicans. Despite the GOP’s long history of environmental stewardship, from Theodore Roosevelt’s pioneering conservation work to Ronald Reagan’s signing of the Montreal Protocol, the party has struggled to find its footing on environmental issues in recent decades. Many Republicans worry that overzealous bureaucrats and activists will kill jobs and stifle America’s economic competitiveness through regulation, all under the guise of environmental protection. Others suspect that radical activists are using environmentalism, and climate change policy in particular, as a Trojan horse to advance a broader progressive agenda. But failing to champion an alternative — a conservative climate agenda — has allowed misguided liberal policies to go unchallenged. As a result, millions of climate-conscious voters mistakenly thought they had to vote for Democrats.
It does not have to be this way.
While radical figures like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Greta Thunberg are most often associated with climate activism, climate change is, in fact, a mainstream concern among Americans. Two-thirds of Americans say that the government is not doing enough to address the issue, and overwhelming majorities support climate policies — such as planting trees (90 percent), providing tax credits for carbon capture (84 percent), and restricting power-plant emissions (80 percent). Yet, many Americans believe the GOP, the party responsible for creating the first national park and the Environmental Protection Agency, couldn’t care less about the planet. Only 39 percent of young people believe that Republicans care about climate change, but 73 percent say that Republicans should.
Seeing this dilemma, some in the GOP have worked to change the party’s reputation. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to protect the Everglades and made significant investments to strengthen coastal infrastructure threatened by rising sea levels. At the federal level, Republicans have championed policies like the Growing Climate Solutions Act, which incentivizes farmers and ranchers to adopt climate-smart practices, and the Energy Act of 2020, a historic investment into clean energy that President Trump signed into law. Last year, Representative John Curtis of Utah founded the Conservative Climate Caucus. The group of climate-minded Republicans has swelled to over 70 members, making it the second-largest caucus in Congress. Republicans are dispelling the myth that only liberals care about the environment.
These steps are encouraging, but to break the Democrats’ monopoly on the issue and challenge their counterproductive climate agenda, Republicans must go further. They need stronger climate solutions and a strategy to communicate them to everyday Americans.
The House GOP’s plan does just that. It is made up of six pillars: “Unlock America’s Resources,” “Beat China and Russia,” “Let America Build,” “Build Resilient Communities,” “American Innovation,” and “Conservation with a Purpose.” Over the summer, Republicans plan to hold events addressing each of the pillars, highlighting policy solutions that will lower greenhouse-gas emissions while boosting the U.S. economy and energy security.
Some of the policies that fall under the plan, such as investing in clean-energy technologies and planting trees, have bipartisan support. Democrats will criticize other elements that are vital for successfully addressing climate change, which will present an opportunity for Republicans to differentiate their approach. For example, Democrats have consistently fought against efforts to reform the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), but even environmentalists now acknowledge that broad deployment of clean energy and infrastructure will require significant regulatory streamlining.
Nuclear energy is another area where liberal hypocrisy has thwarted energy security and climate progress. Despite nuclear being the most reliable and largest source of clean energy in the U.S., liberal activists have worked to shutter plants like New York’s Indian Point. Protecting the existing nuclear fleet and investing in next-generation nuclear technologies will be a hallmark of the Republican climate strategy.
Natural gas is another area where Republicans differ from many on the left. While natural gas is a fossil fuel, it burns far cleaner than the coal it often replaces. In fact, GOP-supported innovation in the oil and gas sector enabled this fuel switching — and is the biggest reason why the U.S. has reduced emissions more than the rest of the developed world combined since 2005. Republicans rightfully support the export of American natural gas around the world and the effort to scale carbon-capture technology, further reducing emissions.
What truly differentiates this new strategy from the approach Democrats have promoted for years is the scope. Republicans recognize that climate change is an inherently global problem. While the United States should certainly play a leading role in responding to global climate change, we only produce 11 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. The Democrats’ prescription — taxing, regulating, and restricting the U.S. economy — will only, at best, put a dent in that 11 percent. Republicans will instead reduce emissions around the world by increasing American energy production of all types, holding China accountable for contributing more than a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions, and manufacturing more products here in the U.S. that can be exported. This strategy is not just an alternative to the Green New Deal or Build Back Better; this strategy is a fundamentally new and more effective approach that addresses the root of the problem.
Climate change will not make or break the Republicans’ bid to retake the House this fall. Nevertheless, the long-term sustainability of the GOP hinges on Republicans’ ability to show voters that they do take climate change seriously. If Kevin McCarthy does ride a red wave into the speaker’s office, the success of his new majority will, in part, be measured by his ability to execute this new climate agenda.
Teddy Roosevelt helped a rapidly growing nation conserve its natural heritage for future generations. Ronald Reagan took swift, decisive action to stop the world from burning a hole in the atmosphere. The Republican Party is at its best when it remembers that there is nothing more conservative than conserving the environment. Now, with their new climate plan, Republicans in Congress are ushering in a new era for their party and the environmental movement.