Republicans and conservatives are clashing over which House Republicans should be appointed to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s, D-Calif., new climate change committee, a decision Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., is expected to announce as soon as next week.
The GOP representation on the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis will be an early demonstration of the party’s approach to the contentious issue in the lead-up to the 2020 election.
Some groups are pushing for Republicans to use the committee, which is mostly symbolic and has no power to write legislation, to shape Democratic-led climate policy such as the progressive “Green New Deal” in a more conservative direction.
“We can win on this issue with better conservative ideas,” said Jeremy Harrell, policy director of ClearPath, a conservative group supportive of clean energy.
But other conservative groups that are skeptical of climate change and government policies to confront it want Republicans to approach the climate committee with a wrecking-ball mentality.
“I have my fingers crossed that the minority leader will appoint a ranking member and most of the other members of the select committee who represent the views of the majority of the conference — that is, climate realists who oppose carbon taxes,” said Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “There is, after all, a real alternative to the Green New Deal. It’s called the Trump energy and environmental deregulatory agenda.”
Harrell and other Republicans who favor a centrist approach to climate change see hopeful signs that their side will win out.
Since the rollout of the Green New Deal earlier this month, the Republican leaders of key energy and science committees in the House have demonstrated a notable shift in tone.
The top Republicans of the Energy and Commerce Committee have said they want a “sensible, realistic, and effective” alternative to the Green New Deal while calling climate change a “real” problem that Congress should tackle in a bipartisan way.
“America’s approach for tackling climate change should be built upon the principles of innovation, conservation, and adaptation,” said Reps. Greg Walden of Oregon, the committee’s ranking member, Fred Upton of Michigan, and John Shimkus of Illinois, in an op-ed published Feb. 13 in RealClearPolicy.
Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., the new ranking member of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, is signaling a different approach than his predecessor, former Rep. Lamar Smith, a climate science skeptic.
“Droughts and heat waves come and go naturally, but the changing climate has intensified their impacts,” Lucas said during a Feb. 13 hearing. “We know the climate is changing and that global industrial activity has played a role in this phenomenon.”
Harrell said Republican leaders would be wise to follow the lead of GOP committee leaders when appointing members to Pelosi’s climate panel.
“The last two weeks have been telling,” Harrell said.
Committee leaders such as Walden and Lucas who have jurisdiction over energy and climate issues aren’t interested in serving on Pelosi’s select committee because of its limited authority, but they are encouraging McCarthy to select like-minded members.
“Republicans are focused on commonsense solutions to climate change and our nation’s energy needs,” said a spokesman for Walden on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Ebell, meanwhile, said he’s fearful of the recent shift among Republicans and what it says about how the party might approach the climate committee.
“The signals of pre-emptive capitulation from Chairmen Lucas and Walden do not look good,” he said.
Observers familiar with the process say McCarthy is taking a middle-ground approach to choosing climate committee members.
“Our conference is known for having diverse opinions. I would not anticipate this committee being about stacking members from one group or another,” a person familiar with McCarthy’s thinking told the Washington Examiner. “Leader McCarthy values members equally and wants to represent all voices in our conference.”
McCarthy has not confirmed any GOP members of the committee yet, but the person said he hopes to announce names next week. According to the House rules package establishing the committee, McCarthy is responsible for recommending six of the 15 members, including a ranking member. Democrats have already named their members, led by the committee’s chairwoman, Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida.
Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, a longtime skeptic, is gunning for the top Republican position, with the support of groups such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He was ranking member of a previous iteration of the climate committee created by House Democrats in 2007 and later disbanded by Republicans after they took control of the chamber in January 2011.
From that perch, Sensenbrenner sought to combat the Democratic message about the threat of climate change and has indicated he would behave similarly if he led the new climate committee.
“We have no problem with having a diversity of views among the committee appointees, but the ranking member really needs to be someone who is not afraid to stand up to the exaggerations and hysteria that surround so much of this discussion rather than being swept along in the rush to ‘do something,’” said Kenny Stein, policy director of the conservative Institute for Energy Research.
But Republican advocates for government policy to combat climate change are pushing for GOP leaders to select members such as Reps. Garret Graves of Louisiana and Francis Rooney of Florida, both who have communicated interest to McCarthy.
Rooney, a Republican first elected in 2016 whose southwest Florida district is vulnerable to sea level rise, leads the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus and has introduced a carbon tax bill.
Graves also represents a district feeling sea level rise.
Last Congress, he chaired the Transportation Committee’s Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, where he helped pass legislation on flood protection and encouraged federal disaster response and recovery programs to emphasize climate change adaptation and resilience to global warming impacts.
The different approaches speak to the challenge the party faces on whether to revise its platform to include government policies to address climate change, with polls showing increasing awareness, even among Republicans, of worsening weather events and their connection to climate change.
“No matter who they put on the committee, the members must have some sort of agenda for climate change and the need to address it,” said Frank Maisano, a principal at the law firm Bracewell, who represents clients in the energy and environment space. “That’s where industry is, where the market is, and where Republicans are as well.”
