House Republicans Introduce Market-Oriented Climate Measures

Meet one of the groups working behind the scenes to reinvigorate environmentalism as a core tenet of the Republican Party’s platform

By
126

In advance of Earth Day, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy unveiled on Monday the Energy Innovation Agenda, a three-day virtual forum highlighting a flurry of House Republican-sponsored bills geared toward clean energy infrastructure, conservation, and other market-oriented climate proposals. “Democrats often dismiss Republicans as being disinterested in addressing global climate change,” McCarthy said Monday in a video introducing this week’s climate initiative. 

“This is just false,” McCarthy said. “Our members have been working for years to develop thoughtful, targeted legislation to reduce global emissions by ensuring we can develop and build new technology at home that is clean, affordable, and exportable.”

Among other bills, this week’s Republican-led climate agenda highlights the Forestry Education and Workforce Act, the Trillion Trees Act, and the Growing Climate Solutions Act, all market-oriented proposals that focus on forest management, renewable energy, and carbon capture and sequestration. 

But unlike the Green New Deal, newly reintroduced by progressive Democrats on Tuesday, the Energy Innovation Agenda made few headlines this week. “Climate change has been a ‘gotcha’ issue for conservatives for so long, it seems the media isn’t willing to give that up,” 23-year-old Benji Backer, president and founder of the American Conservation Coalition, told The Dispatch. “Instead of focusing on the most attention-grabbing headline, the media should focus on conservatives stepping up to the plate in good faith.”

Start a Free Trial
Get every newsletter and all of The Dispatch. Support quality, fact-based journalism. Get Started ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT? SIGN IN
126
By
Comments (126)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Avatar photo
    Slp

    You only have to read a few of these comments to realize how it happens that the Republican party doesn't participate in serious climate change discussions and policy.

    Collapse
  2. Avatar photo
    BrettH

    Better late than never I suppose. I still remember when cocaine Mitch acknowledged the obvious climate problem a few years ago and I even gave him a little golf clap for pulling his head out of the sand👏. Republicans needing “credibility” in the space is a very polite way to put it. It never should’ve been so difficult to recognize a growing problem. Spending years mocking the left’s fringier ideas while offering few alternative policy solutions of their own was a fantastic strategy to get sidelined. Traditional conservation has always struck me as jiving well with the conservative disposition (both of which, full disclosure, apply to me).

    That said, market oriented solutions with government incentive structures (e.g. tax incentives, investment credits, increased funding for RD&D, etc.) is presently the best route to transition the economy off carbon as quickly as possible. Have y’all seen the people running the country in DC or worked with state environmental regulators? I have far more faith in the competency and efficiency of the private sector to get beyond basic research. I’ve got my eye on this fusion project:

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.wbur.org/earthwhile/2021/03/03/massachusetts-mit-fusion-devens

    Solar panels and wind turbines create an insane amount of garbage at the end of their life and I hope you’re cool with water pollution challenges associated with intensive lithium mining for electric batteries. There are trade offs for everything we do. Nuclear power (hopefully fusion and not fission) can resolve the electric grid challenge with firm generation for decades with minimal power waste. Then, it seems to me, society can spend more time and effort on both light and heavy-duty transportation modes and the energy intensive industries like steel manufacturing.

    Collapse
    1. Mark N. Dailey

      Great link. Thanks!

      Collapse
  3. Mathew A

    I've been in favor of a net zero carbon tax for a while (carbon tax offset by a reduction in the payroll or income tax).

    Do that, and then get rid off the rest of the red tape, and let market forces work.

    Also, we need to focus on regenerative farming. It combines no-till drilling with cover cropping, mob grazing, and little to no pesticide/fertilizer use. This allows very fast top soil formation, the top soil traps huge amounts of C02 in the soil (enough to store all the C02 since the industrial revolution). It also allows for comparable costs and yields. But has capital costs as people need to get more equipment, and there's a transition period as the soil recovers.

    The book "Dirt to Soil" by Gabe Brown is a great primer on this.

    Collapse
  4. Jo Jijive

    Sorry for the nit, but you've got George W. Bush's first name as "Georgia", which I guess is on many people's minds now. More substantively, yes, please more details on what these bills say.

    Collapse
  5. Avatar photo
    Ed P

    I welcome Republicans (at least signalling they might) join the party. But I'll believe it when I see laws passed.

    That being said, my preferred climate change policy proposal is Carbon Tax and Dividend scheme proposed by James Baker and all. If only any Republicans that currently hold power would get behind it. It is an elegant market based solution that appropriately places costs where they belong while remaining overall tax neutral.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Kmregan7

      Is there a good source for the Carbon Tax and Dividend Scheme that is easy to read for us that aren't great at things like tax codes and the like?

      Collapse
    2. Mathew A

      Agreed. i think some type of net zero carbon tax is by far the best solution. You could also pair it with a reduction in the red tape that has been passed to try and achieve carbon reductions in round about ways

      Collapse
  6. Wes

    The Dispatch should do some digging and identify the most accurate computer model for predicting the future? Put another way, can we see the formula of the least inaccurate computer model that constitutes "settled science?" Did that model forecast that the Global Temperature would peak in March 2016 and remain significantly below that peak for 5 years running? Talk about enhancing credibility if it did!!! Please go to https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov and open the Supplemental Report on Year-to-Date global temperatures for 2021 and absorb the data points from Earth's thermometer. One more thing, please don't suggest the missing heat is hiding deep in the ocean, as a few trolls have tried to tell me when I have made these points in other forums, unless it is no longer "settled science" that heat rises.

    Collapse
    1. Mathew A

      'Did that model forecast that the Global Temperature would peak in March 2016 and remain significantly below that peak for 5 years running'

      This is untrue

      "Nineteen of the warmest years have occurred since 2000, with the exception of 1998. The year 2020 tied with 2016 for the warmest year on record since record-keeping began in 1880"
      https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/

      Collapse
  7. Avatar photo
    Rajeev

    Did the Republicans pass anything significant relating to environmentalism when they had the power to do so in 2017 or 2018? I can't remember anything of significance but I could be wrong. It seems that the party has had a pattern of putting forth symbolic legislation when in the minority or when out of power. A type of virtue signaling in my opinion that has mirrored so many other issues that they ignore when in power (debt ceiling, deficit spending, infrastructure, healthcare, etc.)

    Collapse
  8. Daniel Rabiner

    So what do the three bills actually do? You forgot that in this article.

    Collapse
  9. Avatar photo
    BrandonAlleman

    I look forward to the follow up article that focuses on the market based solutions this group is championing. I felt a bit of bait and switch here and wouldn't have read if I knew it was more a summary of the talking points and grievances of the group. From this article, it seems to me the problem they are defining is political positioning and not climate change.

    Collapse
  10. Avatar photo
    L Bernard

    Why is there no mention of a carbon emission tax? Or some other way of pricing the cost of dumping CO2 waste?

    Collapse
Load More