Nancy’s Pelosi’s special climate change committee is a pointless waste of money, says the panel’s top Republican Garret Graves, who is accusing Democrats of breaching trust by releasing a partisan report this week without including GOP members.
“It certainly does undermine trust, and not just trust, but the viability or the value of participating in this,” Graves, who represents Louisiana, told the Washington Examiner in an interview Monday.
“If I had known then what I know now, why did we go through this whole waste of money by putting a committee together, wasting money on staff, and do a dog and pony show with hearings? You don’t need us to do this. You certainly didn’t need to spend taxpayer funds to do it.”
Committee Democrats are releasing a “comprehensive congressional action plan to solve the climate crisis” at a press conference Tuesday, with Pelosi at their side but none of the panel’s six Republican members.
Democrats are treating the unveiling as a way to signal their priorities to a restive base that is eager for signs of aggressive climate action before the presidential election.
The plan establishes a range of high-level targets already supported by most Democrats, calling for the United States to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, eliminating emissions from the power sector by 2040, and ensuring all new cars sold are carbon-free by 2035.
While Republicans were never going to endorse those ideas, Graves said GOP members agree with Democrats on at least some narrow policy issues, such as promoting adaptation measures, spending and tax credits for clean energy technologies, and modernizing the electricity grid.
“I love policy, and if they want to have a constructive policy discussion about an informed, science-based path forward, I would have that discussion,” Graves said.
The Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, created by Pelosi a year and a half ago, can only make policy recommendations, not write bills.
Until recently, Democratic Chairwoman Kathy Castor of Florida and her Republican counterpart, Graves, had planned to release a report jointly, as the committee’s ground rules called for.
Democrats shifted gears after the coronavirus hit, notifying Republicans they would release their own majority plan and delaying a planned March 31 release because of the pandemic. Graves said that violates the committee’s rules, which called for it to hold a markup vote among its members.
Graves speculated that committee Democrats felt pressured to release a partisan report after other leaders of the party beat them to outlining plans.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Democrats have already released a draft bill endorsing net-zero emissions by 2050. Democrats this week are beginning debate on a massive infrastructure bill that also addresses climate change. Presidential nominee Joe Biden, meanwhile, has his own $1.7 trillion climate plan that sets a goal of 100% clean energy and net-zero emissions by 2050.
“The whole committee on the Democratic side has been largely disrespected,” Graves said. “There has been some civil unrest on their side in regard to who is running this thing, who has what role. That was something that should have been reined in early on if they considered this a legitimate effort from the beginning.”
Castor, however, told the Washington Examiner that committee Democrats requested Republican input and ideas “all the way along” and that “our work is not done.” She said the Democratic report contains bipartisan bills.
“This certainly is a different tone from ranking member Graves than the one he used just last week, when we agreed to work on bipartisan climate recommendations in the coming months,” Castor said. “I encourage Republicans to publicly share their ideas to protect our communities from the next flood or the next big hurricane.”
Democrats argue the pandemic has created more urgency for protecting the economy from climate change.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how important it is for policymakers to listen to scientists,” Castor said. “The Climate Crisis Action Plan is a science-based roadmap to cheaper renewable energy with good-paying American jobs. Hopefully, Republicans can join us and rally around that too.”
But Republicans who have begun, in recent years, acknowledging the seriousness of climate change have largely returned to focusing on promoting the importance of fossil fuel industries damaged by low oil prices.
“I want to be careful not to prejudge here, but to simply dust off your pre-corona agenda and not recognize we are in an entirely different spot right now, that’s really dangerous and really ignorant,” said Graves, who noted he has not read the 538-page report, which he said he received Monday afternoon.
