Republicans Claim They Have A Climate Plan: Trillion Trees Bullshit, Lots & Lots Of Natural Gas
House Republicans say they have a climate plan, even if they aren’t officially using the word “climate” to describe it. In the coming months, Republicans intend to vote on a series of bills taking aim at existing federal regulations the GOP believes is stifling domestic clean energy production and innovation, a leadership aide aware of the party’s climate strategy told E&E News. The centerpiece of the broad legislative package will be an overhaul of the nation’s energy project permitting system which will at its core take aim at the National Environmental Policy Act — a bedrock environmental protection law sacrosanct to many Democrats.
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Republicans are trying to thread a needle here: On the one hand, they want to appease climate-conscious voters and powerful business interests that want Republicans to act on climate. On the other, they don’t want to impose any of the sweeping federal mandates or spend the kind of money many experts believe will be necessary to reduce global emissions. Republicans say other environmental legislation could hit the floor at some point in the next two years. The GOP aide told E&E News that lawmakers could vote on reforms to the structure of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Endangered Species Act. Legislation to plant one trillion trees for the purposes of carbon sequestration — a longtime priority of new House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) — could also get a vote (E&E Daily, March 3, 2021).
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“Republicans have moved from denial to an acknowledgment of climate change,” said Alex Flint, a former Republican congressional staffer who now leads the pro-carbon-pricing group Alliance for Market Solutions. “They have not yet articulated clear climate goals, and their proposals are inadequate to address the risks associated with climate change.” Ultimately, the GOP agenda would push policies that promote the expansion of fossil fuel production without adhering to goalposts for reducing emissions benchmarks. Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government relations at the League for Conservation Voters, was even more candid. “Acknowledging that climate change is real in 2023 is woefully insufficient and inadequate,” she said. “Their solutions that would keep us depending on dirty fossil fuels are not actual solutions, and so just not saying absolutely ridiculous climate denier things on their face does not mean that they evolved in any meaningful way.”
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Heather Reams, president of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, said the significance of the task force’s recommendations and its status as a driver in the GOP’s early legislative agenda could not be overstated. “We never got a marker for where Republicans were until we saw the task force with the pillars,” said Reams, whose organization also co-founded the Conservative Climate Foundation to support the caucus’s work. “For the first time, with the Republicans at the head, we are going to have Republicans, and hopefully Democrats, working together to reduce emissions. And if you care about global warming, you should be applauding.” Reams said Democrats ought to “take Republicans at face value that they do want to engage in lowering emissions.”
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https://www.eenews.net/articles/republicans-insist-they-have-a-climate-plan/
