Republican Lawmakers Face Pressure to Propose 'Green New Deal' Alternative

February 11, 2019

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by Josh Siegel (Washington Examiner) Republicans who want to combat climate change say their party should avoid the temptation of rejecting the progressive “Green New Deal” without proposing an alternative.

“If the Green New Deal goes down in flames and gets totally discredited, the climate issue is still out there,” said Josiah Neeley, energy policy director at the R Street Institute. “You still have to come up with ways to deal with it.”

The Green New Deal resolution introduced Thursday by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. — with more than 70 House and Senate co-sponsors — contains several nonbinding goals to transform the U.S. economy to fight climate change.

It calls for 100 percent clean, renewable, and zero-emission electricity, and the elimination of carbon emissions from other major sectors of the economy — manufacturing, buildings, transportation, and even agriculture.

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But because it contains no actual policies to get there, leaving that work for later, Republicans should fill in the gap with their own prescriptions, party leaders say.

“Republicans could point to the Green New Deal and say these people are socialists, it’s stupid and bad,” said Shane Skelton, who was an energy policy adviser to former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. “But that's not the best route, because it's not thoughtful and doesn't give you a platform.”

That’s especially true as polls show Republicans growing more concerned about climate change and noticing the impact the global warming is having on extreme weather events.

“When you go into campaign season, it's always better to say I have a better solution to your problem that will hurt you less and help you more than to say you don't have a problem, and I don't want to talk about it,” Skelton said.

So far, leading Republicans aren’t listening to that advice, viewing the Green New Deal, with its creep into non-climate-related issues and focus on government intervention, as a way to paint Democrats as too extreme.

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(George David) Banks said the approach of the Green New Deal to “throw the kitchen sink” at fighting climate change pressures Republicans, especially in suburban districts and coastal ones exposed to sea-level rise.

“If you are looking at developing a national climate policy, there are components of the Green New Deal I would support in principle,” he said. “The majority of their climate policy reflects a centrist position.”

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In the U.N.'s estimation, the solution includes putting a price on carbon dioxide emissions, a linchpin policy that most economists view as the most efficient way to combat climate change

The Green New Deal does not mention carbon pricing, leaving an opening for centrist Republicans such as Reps. Francis Rooney of Florida and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania who have co-sponsored carbon tax legislation. READ MORE

“Disappearing” Carbon Tax for Non-Renewable Fuels (Advanced Biofuels USA)

House lawmakers introduce resolution to support Paris climate agreement (The Hill)

THE 'SCOPE' OF A GREEN NEW DEAL: (Politico's Morning Energy)

Texas Democrats caught between climate change and the energy economy (Houston Chronicle)

Americans Were A Lot Less Worried About Climate Change Before Trump Took Office (FiveThirtyEight)

Verizon Has Bond Market Seeing Green After Billion-Dollar Deal (Bloomberg)

Democrats float 'Green New Deal' to end fossil fuel era (Reuters)

Bipartisan Carbon Capture Bills Come on Heels of Green New Deal (Bloomberg)

Republican senators push new bill to kill electric vehicle tax credit completely and add new EV tax (electrik)

Dems downplay divisions over Green New Deal (The Hill)

TRADING BARBS: Lawmakers went back and forth over a Green New Deal (Politico's Morning Energy)

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: THE 'SCOPE' OF A GREEN NEW DEAL: Think of the nonbinding resolution introduced last week as a "request for proposals," Ocasio-Cortez explained in a series of tweets on Sunday. Tying together a host a issues like the Flint water crisis and battery technology investments, Ocasio-Cortez called for a range of ideas to achieve the goals she and Sen. Ed Markey laid out last week.

"For far too long, ideas like a carbon tax or cap-and-trade were touted as the premier solutions to climate change," she tweeted Sunday. "While those things could be *part* of a solution, the GND resolution says they are inadequate as the whole answer." She added: "We've defined the scope and where we want to go. Now let's assess + collab on projects."

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump continued to mock the entire concept of the resolution. "I think it is very important for the Democrats to press forward with their Green New Deal," Trump tweeted. "It would be great for the so-called 'Carbon Footprint' to permanently eliminate all Planes, Cars, Cows, Oil, Gas & the Military — even if no other country would do the same. Brilliant!"

The president is not alone in thinking the resolution could work in Republicans' favor, as POLITICO's Anthony Adragna and Zack Colman report. The resolution sparked fast criticism from Republicans who predict its progressive ideas will bring more moderates to their side in the lead-up to 2020 elections.

The debate comes as Sunrise Movement, the youth-led climate group at the heart of the push for a Green New Deal, will be visiting Senate and House offices today to prod lawmakers to take a side on the resolution. READ MORE

Excerpt from Houston Chronicle: Houston Democrat Lizzie Fletcher was elected to Congress last November as part of a progressive groundswell against President Donald Trump, winning over a stretch of wealthy Houston suburbs where the oil industry has long reigned supreme and Democrats had not won an election since the late 1960s.

But within a month of her taking office, Democrats’ potential headwinds in suburban Texas are in full view as a proposal from the party’s progressive wing to rapidly shift the United States away from fossil fuels gains momentum amidst increasingly dire forecasts on climate change.

“I don’t think it’s something you want to touch with a 10-foot pole in our district,” said David Feldwisch, a Fletcher supporter and president of the Upper Kirby-based civic group Oil Patch Democrats. “Even with Democrats, you’re not going to find anyone denying climate change, but you’re going to find a split between people who want to do something really drastic right now and people who want to something more gradual.”

...(I)n Texas any shift away from the oil and gas sector is viewed hesitantly for its potential to wreak havoc on the state economy.

Matt Angle, director of the Lone Star Project, a Washington-based consulting firm that works with Democratic candidates in Texas, said it was crucial that Democrats presented a pragmatic approach to climate change that did not “arbitrarily put the brakes on fossil fuels.”

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Fletcher, a former energy attorney and chair of the House Science Space and Technology’s subcommittee on Environment, said it was critical Texas plays a prominent role as climate policy is worked out. READ MORE

Excerpt from electrik: A group of Republican senators have introduced a new bill to kill the federal electric vehicle tax credit completely and add a new annual tax for electric vehicles.

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Now, Republican Senator John Barrasso (Wyoming), along with Republican Senator Roberts (Kansas) and Enzi (Wyoming), have introduced yet another bill to kill the tax credit.

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The tax credit is already starting to phase out for several automakers including Tesla and GM.

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Trump administration have also been threatening to end the electric car tax credit.

Barrasso’s bill also proposes an annual tax for “alternative fuel vehicles” to replace lost revenue from the gas tax.

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An ideal solution would be to tax gas-powered cars more to have their cost represents the cost they have on the environment and the health of the population, which has a direct financial cost. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: TRADING BARBS: Lawmakers went back and forth over a Green New Deal this week, prompted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's announcement that he'd hold a vote on the resolution from Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Republicans have seized on the resolution and a "talking points" memo erroneously published by Ocasio-Cortez's office that included replacing air travel with high-speed rail. "There's another victim of the Green New Deal, it's ice cream," EPW Chairman John Barrasso said Tuesday from the Senate floor. "Say goodbye to dairy, to beef, to family farms to ranches."

Ocasio-Cortez responded to the claim Tuesday by noting she likes "ice cream way too much to do that," and added: "Maybe if the GOP did their job for once & read a piece of legislation, they'd see that communities + jobs come FIRST, not last, in the #GreenNewDeal."

Democrats Tuesday quickly dismissed McConnell's plan to vote on the resolution, S. Res. 59 (116), as a political stunt rather than a sincere effort to discuss climate change, as POLITICO's Anthony Adragna reports. "We are already feeling the early nightmares of climate crisis, & the GOP is doing nothing to stop it - as they have for years," Ocasio-Cortez said Tuesday night.

It's likely only the beginning of Republicans' efforts to use the resolution to their advantage. As POLITICO reported, GOP lawmakers are hoping their opponents drift so far left they will be vulnerable in 2020. Several presidential hopefuls have already signed onto the resolution, but Sherrod Brown, another potential 2020 contender, declined to say Tuesday whether he supported the proposal.

The youth-led Sunrise Movement will visit the offices of Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders and Kirsten Gillibrand today to demand the 2020 contenders make the Green New Deal a "Day One priority" for their presidential campaigns and whip up support ahead of a Senate vote. READ MORE