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by Nick Sobczyk (E&E News)  Democrats have long billed themselves as the party of climate science, and if they take back the House in November, they want to put global warming back on the congressional calendar.

“It’s the 800-pound gorilla,” said Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), co-chairman of the Safe Climate Caucus. “It’s going to be huge in terms of having the ability to shape the agenda on that.”

In a general sense, the first steps would be obvious: oversight hearings, votes on messaging bills and movement on some sort of carbon tax legislation.

But Democrats would have to deal with a Senate likely to stay in Republican hands and with President Trump, who says climate change is a hoax.

And despite all the climate caucuses, press releases and posturing, they would also have to figure out how to push major climate legislation through a caucus whose members often don’t list it among their top priorities.

Climate change takes a back seat on the campaign trail to issues like health care and the broader economy, meaning it wouldn’t be the first thing Democrats jump on next Congress, said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.). 

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On one side are members like Rep. Conor Lamb, who took his conservative western Pennsylvania district in part by touting the shale boom and supporting hydraulic fracturing. Lamb voted alongside most Republicans — and six other Democrats — in favor of an anti-carbon-tax resolution from Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) last month.

On the other end are Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who dethroned 10-term incumbent and chairman of the House Democratic Caucus Joe Crowley in the primary for New York’s 14th District.

Ocasio-Cortez has voiced support for carbon pricing and called for a switch to 100 percent renewable energy by 2035, an ambitious goal that falls in line with the rhetoric coming out of 350.org, Justice Democrats and other groups on the party’s progressive wing.

Those groups see climate solutions — and holding fossil fuel companies accountable for pollution — as part of a broader movement for environmental and social justice. 

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“Depending on how big their margin is, I doubt it would even pass the House,” Maisano (Frank Maisano, a partner in Bracewell LLP’s Policy Resolution Group, which represents a mix of energy clients) said. “I do think that for a really important carbon tax piece that could be used against you in a campaign in a presidential year, I would think that there would be a lot of people who would be worried about that.”

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Democrats should try to reframe carbon pricing and climate issues as economic policy, said Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton White House climate adviser and a strategic adviser with New Democracy, a centrist Democratic group.

That means talking more about ballooning costs of natural disasters, touting the potential emissions reduction benefits of the shale boom and using a carbon tax to lower taxes.

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Progressive groups, too, support carbon pricing, but NoiseCat rejected the more moderate approach, arguing that the party should focus instead on telling the stories of those affected by climate change and eliminating fossil fuels altogether as part of a “Green New Deal.”

“In terms of working with the centrist part of the Democratic Party, we really feel that the momentum is with the progressive wing,” NoiseCat said.

“So while there might be some negotiation that you can imagine in the 2021 to 2023 legislative window with the more moderate wing of the party, we think that the people who are really pushing the solutions that have the momentum, that are where the base of the party is at, are people like [Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.”

The Democratic National Committee took a step in Bledsoe’s direction last week when it voted to reverse its ban on campaign dollars from fossil fuel companies and pledged support for an “all of the above” energy policy (Greenwire, Aug. 13). 

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Democratic Environmental Message Team Co-Chairman Don McEachin (D-Va.) said Democrats might look to put together a green infrastructure bill to fund adaptation projects, as well as legislation to boost carbon capture and storage technology.

A big part of the environmental agenda would involve pushing back on the Trump administration’s climate change policies at the federal agencies, particularly its proposal to freeze fuel economy targets at 2020 levels.    READ MORE