Republicans Grasp for a Climate Change Message

by Zack Colman and Anthony Adragna (Politico) Tuesday’s expected Senate vote rejecting the Green New Deal masks a striking reality: In a matter of months, liberal activists have upended the conversation about climate change among both parties in Washington.

Democratic presidential candidates are rallying around calls from their base for immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, although some moderate members are bristling at the aggressive ideas being promoted by progressives like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But even as Republicans seek to exploit that divide, many GOP lawmakers are offering climate solutions of their own. And few besides President Donald Trump still dispute that the changing climate is a problem.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) presented one of the latest examples Monday by calling for a "new Manhattan Project for Clean Energy" that would double energy research funding and promote GOP-friendly approaches to reducing greenhouse gas pollution, such as nuclear energy or technology to capture carbon dioxide from coal plants. And Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), one of Trump's closest allies, is drafting a "Green Real Deal" resolution that would acknowledge climate change as a security threat while avoiding calls for sharp reductions in fossil fuels.

"It's important to have a Republican message on climate change that's clear," Alexander told reporters after a floor speech on the topic. “It's clear why we're opposed to the Green New Deal — it's an assault on cars and cows and combustion — but it's not as clear what we're for."

"I believe climate change is real,” Alexander added. “I believe humans are a major cause of it, and I think a new 'Manhattan Project for Clean Energy' is something that most Republicans could support, and I would hope most Democrats could too."

Alexander said he is working with fellow Republicans like Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on possible GOP climate approaches. Republican House members also say they are eager to put forward their own ideas.

Polls back up the importance of the issue for 2020. Likely Democratic caucus-goers in Iowa, home of the nation's first presidential caucus, now rank climate change as the second-most important topic facing the nation.

“We don’t know if we can get to net-zero carbon emissions in 10 years, but we should certainly try," (New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten) Gillibrand said at a news conference Tuesday in Washington. "Why not this be a measure of how great we are as a nation? Why not this be a measure of how innovative and entrepreneurial and capable our scientists and engineers are? Why not be the world leader in doing something extraordinary and showing what this country is made of? That’s what this opportunity is.”

The nonbinding Green New Deal resolution calls for Congress to craft legislation that would hit that 1.5-degree target, but its supporters acknowledge there are ample details to be decided.

"It certainly isn't my intention that we pass one bill that is equal in the scale to the Green New Deal," Ocasio-Cortez told POLITICO earlier this month. "What it's saying is that whether it's five bills, whether it's a hundred bills — in the same way that the New Deal had New Deal projects, that's what we're really trying to say."

Republicans are entering the fray, too, after a long period of climate dormancy. Gaetz, who as a freshman introduced legislation to abolish the EPA in the previous Congress, is now circulating a non-binding climate change resolution.

GOP lawmakers have settled on technological innovation, in areas like carbon capture and nuclear energy, as their preferred approach to curbing greenhouse gas emissions. They have rejected more comprehensive approaches like carbon pricing or cap and trade that Democrats have put forward.

"My solutions are out there," Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said in a recent interview. "I'm not the guy that thinks comprehensive is the way to go — whether it's health care or climate. I'm putting forth bills that can actually make a difference and can actually get passed." READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: THE PRICE OF THE POLITICAL PUNCHING BAG: Republicans' decision to cast the Green New Deal as an expensive socialist fantasy might work to demonize vulnerable Democrats in 2020. But some current and former GOP lawmakers warn that it — coupled with the president's own rhetoric on climate change — could also scare away millennials and Generation Z voters at a critical time, POLITICO's Laura Barrón-López and Zack Colman report.

"Mockery doesn't get anybody anywhere," said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who on Thursday voted with Democrats to bar the president from exiting the Paris climate agreement. "We should be offering solutions."

A recent Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics survey found 74 percent of likely general election voters under 30 disapprove of President Donald Trump's climate change performance. Fifty percent called climate change "a crisis" in need of "urgent action," while another 25 percent called it "a problem." At the same time, polling conducted by the progressive firm Data for Progress revealed that proposals to make all cars electric by 2030 and eliminate fossil fuel production by 2035 are unpopular.

But the ability of Republicans to define the Green New Deal as an economic risk could determine whether their attacks inflict real damage on Democrats in competitive districts, Laura and Zack write. If those attacks become conflated with climate change denialism, it could make the climb back to the majority harder for Republicans.

"The energy surrounding the Green New Deal means there are a lot of Americans that want to see Congress take bold action to lower emissions," said former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.). "[Republicans] will alienate younger voters if they criticize without offering an alternative." Read the story. READ MORE