Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., says he despises the labels that have come to define the climate change debate and modern politics.
“I consider myself a conservative, an environmentalist, and practical,” Graves told the Washington Examiner a day after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., named him the top Republican on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s new select climate change committee.
“One of the things I’m excited for in this role is to redefine the climate issue,” Graves explained. “We may come to the table for different reasons — Republicans may come to improve efficiency or lower utility bills, while liberals may be there to reduce emissions. I am confident we can come together on things best for this country.”
Graves knows he has an unenviable task, preventing Pelosi’s Select Committee on the Climate Crisis from devolving into tribal sniping, a likely outcome given the panel has no direct authority to write legislation and is designed to bring attention to climate change ahead of the 2020 election.
“It’s a lot like playing with matches,” Graves said of his position. “This was not a position I was out here saying, ‘I can’t wait to do this.’ It can actually result in disaster if not done responsibly.”
But Graves is betting that if he can eliminate what he calls “unsustainable” climate skepticism within his own ranks and stop the progressive Green New Deal’s push for fossil-fuel-free energy by 2030, he can broker compromises that reduce emissions and help the country prepare against climate change impacts.
[Related: Ocasio-Cortez declined spot on new climate change committee]
Nevertheless, he is prepared to fight back if Democrats steer the panel in a partisan direction and to make them pay a political price for the Green New Deal. “If this is 100 percent designed to be a theatrical dog and pony show, I am game,” Graves said.
Colleagues and friends say the fast-talking Graves would prefer not to shout and is sincere in his offer to cooperate with Democrats.
“His orientation is not to be a partisan warrior. It’s not how he is built,” said former Rep. Ryan Costello, a Republican who represented the Philadelphia suburbs before retiring last year and who worked with Graves on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Graves was the favorite of conservative clean energy advocacy groups, such as ClearPath Foundation, which pushed for McCarthy to choose him over Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., a skeptic who led a previous iteration of the committee in 2007 with a combative approach, and Rep. Francis Rooney of Florida, the primary Republican advocating for Congress to pass a carbon tax.
“McCarthy’s decision to select Graves shows there is cohesion from Republican leadership on the issue of climate change,” said Jeremy Harrell, policy director of ClearPath. “Leadership is on the same page of wanting to talk about solutions, not denying the problem.”
Graves’s coastal district, Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District, directly feels sea level rise, one of the most immediate, tangible impacts of climate change.
Prior to joining Congress, Graves ran the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority under Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal.
In that job, Graves earned plaudits for helping devise a multibillion-dollar coastal restoration and hurricane levee program after a series of devastating hurricanes in 2005, including Katrina.
David Muth, director of Gulf Restoration for the National Wildlife Federation, said Graves was key in securing a “revolutionary achievement” because he helped bridge political differences to lower costs for the plan while also maintaining a sense of urgency.
The plan, finalized in 2012, directed billions in funding for projects to protect against the risks of sea level rise, including levees, flood walls, gates, pumps, and elevated homes, as well as measures to restore dissolving barrier islands and wetlands.
As Graves was working on the plan, he also had to respond to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which resulted in the deaths of 11 workers in 2010. In that role, he helped persuade BP to spend millions of dollars on barriers and other restoration projects.
“The irony that, while dealing with this adaptation plan, he was also dealing with the consequences of Louisiana’s dependence on the oil and gas economy, shows he is in a great place in terms of his understanding the impacts of sea level rise,” Muth said.
[Also read: Ocasio-Cortez praises Pelosi: ‘Leader on climate’]
Graves ran for Congress in 2014, winning support from disparate interests, including the Environmental Defense Fund and the Koch brothers, because of how he handled hurricane response and the oil spill.
Graves has emphasized climate change adaptation since joining the House in 2015.
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.
He describes adaptation to climate change as a component of fiscal discipline, and advocates applying it to policies like the nation’s flood insurance program, which provides insurance to property owners living in areas at risk for flooding. Critics say the program, as currently designed, incentivizes building in areas prone to sea level rise.
“I can put on an environmental hat and say climate change is a crisis and we need to stop emissions because it is exacerbating sea level rise,” Graves said. “Or I can put on my fiscally conservative hat and see, with sea level rise, we have water bodies approaching on populations. We are being idiotic from a fiscally conservative standpoint on how we manage disasters.”
Some progressive environmental groups, however, say Graves has done little to distinguish himself in Congress on advancing policy to reduce carbon emissions. The liberal League of Conservation Voters gives him a 3 percent lifetime score based on his environmental voting record.
“Representative Graves has acknowledged the risk to his district from sea level rise caused by climate change, but he’s also criticized the policy solutions that would slow the rising waters and voted against protections to our air and water at every turn,” said Brent Cohen, executive director of Generation Progress, the youth engagement arm of the Center for American Progress.
Graves opposes carbon pricing, viewed by proponents as the most efficient, comprehensive method to combat climate change, because he says it would make the U.S. economically noncompetitive with other countries.
He has also voted to block government regulations of methane emissions from oil and gas operations and to eliminate funding for advanced clean energy research.
Rep. Jared Huffman of California, a Democratic member of the select climate committee, credits Graves as one of the “brightest, most talented and creative up-and-coming Republicans” in the House. But he said he hopes Graves can expand his climate change focus beyond adaptation issues.
“If adaptation is the area where we are beginning to find willing partners across the aisle, that is progress,” Huffman said. “But where the world really needs Congress to act is decarbonizing, and that’s a harder conversation to have with a representative from a fossil fuel state.”
Supporters say Graves’ methodical approach could help convince more conservative members to take climate change seriously and persuade Democrats to be politically practical.
“He is not the … furthest out Republican on climate change, but he can represent the center of the conference and has the credibility to get people to start thinking strategically and thoughtfully,” Costello said.
