How Francis Rooney became the latest Republican to care about climate change

Rooney, on joining Congress, followed the company line that climate change is real, but humans’ impact on it is uncertain. Then he read about the science. He learned that sea level rise caused by climate change threatens the future of his district, even if its inhabitants don’t realize it yet.

“I’ve always felt it’s obvious that human activity has had an impact on climate, but I didn’t know as much about it until I studied it,” Rooney said. “Life is a journey of continuous learning. Sea level rise existential for Southwest Florida.”

Last month, Rooney became the latest Republican to join the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, a group vowing to address threats from climate change that has steadily grown its ranks to 90 equal lawmakers. He burnished his credentials by being one of two other Republicans to co-sponsor a carbon tax bill introduced this summer by Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida, the co-chair of the climate caucus.

Later, he introduced a resolution “expressing the sense of the House that sea level rise and flooding are of urgent concern impacting Florida” and requires immediate action to adapt and plan for.

The Washington Examiner sat down with Rooney recently to discuss his evolution on climate change.

Washington Examiner: What prompted you to care about climate change and join the Climate Solutions Caucus?

Rooney: I’ve always been very sensitive to trash in the ocean and sea level rise because I am an mariner, a sailor, a scuba diver and all that. I am a water person. I sailed my family across the Atlantic in 2000. I have scuba-dived all over the world. So the science of sea level rise is much easier to prove than some of the climate science.

I have come to think the man-made factors are increasingly important in that too. But you can measure acid, you can measure the height of the sea. You can measure the size of the glaciers.

Washington Examiner: How bad is the sea level threat for your district?

Rooney: Sea level rise is existential for Southwest Florida. You look at some of the projections. If we were to burn less carbon and have less acidification that would help. If we were to burn less coal.

Scientists say we won’t necessarily have more storms with climate change, but we will have worse ones. That’s a real scary thing for a place like Florida.

Washington Examiner: What does your resolution on combating sea level rise do?

Rooney: I did a resolution calling for the recognition that sea level rise, some of it is baked in, and there are things we can do to mitigate how much it does rise. But if it rises anything near what is projected for South Florida we are going to all be in a world of hurt, and we need to be thinking about it now.

The more we can publicize the reality of sea level rise and the risk to a lot of places that are low, maybe some of those people will realize that you can be a plenty good conservative Republican on border security, on foreign affairs, on taxes, on business, and still care about the environment and whether you are going to get flooded.

Washington Examiner: Trump has not fulfilled a pledge to reimpose an Obama-era flood standard meant to encouraging smarter rebuilding of federal infrastructure after worsening storms. What is the consequence of that?

Rooney: Our sea level challenges will be really serious along our coast, with how many people who live along our coast. If we are going to have more powerful storms, and we are going to suffer more rain events in these low areas, does it make sense spending all this money for floods when you could have remediated it in the first place?

Why spend all this money on these repetitive loss properties every time there is a hurricane. It’s kind of ridiculous isn’t it? An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. If you are going to be exposed with floods you ought to incentivize raising up your structure.

Washington Examiner: What are some proactive bills that the Climate Solutions Caucus can actually advance through Congress?

Rooney: If we can get some bills through the House by uniting Democrats and coastal Republicans, we ought to be pushing for real stand-alone measures like a carbon tax and sea level rise that might be able to unite coastal people.

I’d like to see it [the carbon tax] voted on. There is no bill I have sponsored that I would not want to see accomplished.

Washington Examiner: Why aren’t Republicans more vocal against Trump administration policies that don’t seem conservative, such as its proposed coal and nuclear bailout?

Rooney: I am disappointed in it. We should be speaking out. Remember, we used to be the party of the environment. Now we seemed to have abandoned that on some kind of one-size fit all ideology.

The issue is too important to be a partisan issue and a lot of these issues really aren’t.

Coal has a really narrow constituency when you really think about it. It has Mitch McConnell. It has Trump, unfortunately. And it’s got basically a little bit of Ohio, West Virginia.

They are their own worst enemy.

Washington Examiner: How do you sell the carbon tax to fellow Republicans?

Rooney: I’ve been paying bonuses my whole life and you will get what you incentivize. A carbon tax is like a bonus plan.

It’s kind of a free enterprise solution, even though it’s sponsored by the government. Carlos Curbelo’s bill, which I gladly sponsored, would substitute the motor fuels tax and the aviation tax for a carbon tax which actually makes more money and is a way we can fund some infrastructure.

Carlos’ bill is no new tax. It’s a substitute tax. That is one advantage Carlos’ bill has. I would start calling it as an incentive program, and try to get away from calling it a tax.

We want to incentivize people to not burn coal, but burn natural gas, and also invest in solar and wind.

Washington Examiner: How do you get non-coastal Republicans to care about sea level rise and climate change?

Rooney: If we can get some bills through the House by uniting Democrats and coastal Republicans on things like offshore drilling and sea level rise, maybe we can convince others.

Data-based decisions are really helpful. There is so much data out there about shrinking glaciers and sea level rise.

Focusing on sea level rise is a gateway to go further with climate change.

I get there by reading and learning and trying to figure out and not just taking one mantra either way, the liberal mantra or the conservative mantra.