Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., defiant after losing his seat in Congress, is taking aim at a segment of the Republican Party that argues his defeat proves that GOP lawmakers cannot win by running on a platform to combat climate change.
Curbelo in an interview Friday in his Washington, D.C. office, expressed anger at conservative groups, such as Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform and the Heartland Institute, that have cited his loss as proof of the political unpopularity of a carbon tax.
“Those are fraudulent claims,” Curbelo said. “Those groups are as disingenuous and dishonest and corrosive to our politics as groups on the Left.”
In his last act, Curbelo unveiled a carbon tax bill just months before Election Day, a move that quieted critics on his Left who questioned the credentials and purity of Republicans who say they are concerned about climate change, and inflamed opponents on the Right who viewed the move as damaging to his political standing in the GOP conference.
Bob Inglis, the last Republican to introduce a carbon pricing bill, was promptly booted out of Congress in 2010 after introducing a carbon pricing bill, critics note. He lost in a primary to opponents running to his Right — a notable difference.
Curbelo is choosing to take solace in his narrow defeat to Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, believing his aggressive environmental stance helped him stay close in a district antipathetic to President Trump, a climate change skeptic.
Florida’s 26th District, stretching from South Miami down to the Florida Keys, was the place where Hillary Clinton’s 16-point margin of victory in 2016 was larger than that in any other district in which an incumbent Republican was running for re-election.
“The environment was a winning issue for me,” said Curbelo. “This issue only helped me politically.”
The bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus that Curbelo helped create in February 2016 suffered huge losses of Republican members during the midterm elections, leading some progressives who never bought into the premise of the group to predict its demise in the new Democratic-controlled House.
More than half of the 45 Republicans in the caucus, which has an equal number of Democrats, won’t be returning, either because they lost or are retiring.
Curbelo warned liberals, and some environmentalists, to not dismiss Republicans like him and the 20 or so surviving members of the climate caucus, because he contends any future major policy to mitigate global warming must be bipartisan to pass.
“These disingenuous environmental groups need to decide if they want a climate solution or if they want a political solution,” Curbelo said.
Curbelo, a centrist 38-year-old Cuban-American first elected in 2014, used his position as the representative of a low-lying South Florida district that is vulnerable to worsening floods and sea level rise to make the case for legislation to address climate change.
In the interview, he vowed to devote a substantial portion of his life as a private citizen to promoting a carbon tax, which he sees as the “only real solution” to climate change, although he would not detail his specific plans, wanting to wait until after he leaves Congress.
“We also have great champions on our side of the aisle who are going to keep working on this,” he said.
He’s encouraged that returning climate caucus Republican Reps. Francis Rooney of Florida and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania have promised to reintroduce the carbon tax bill in the next Congress.
Curbelo is especially bullish about Rooney, who told the Washington Examiner he would be interested in co-leading the climate caucus next Congress with incumbent Democratic co-chair Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida.
Curbelo says Rooney, 64, is uniquely positioned to lead Republicans on climate change because of his conservative credentials, representing a safe Republican district — Florida’s 19th — easily won by Trump.
“I don’t think there is anyone better on our side of the aisle,” Curbelo said.
He added that he’s supportive of efforts by Rooney and Deutch to impose standards on climate caucus membership, a decision that could deflect criticism from Democrats that some GOP caucus members have poor environmental voting records, and are using the group for political cover.
Curbelo had resisted imposing rules on caucus membership, grateful that Republicans were acknowledging the reality of climate change, and committing to do something about it.
“Given that the caucus is now more mature, I think some basic, minimum standards could work,” Curbelo said.
Curbelo won’t have a say in that anymore as a former member of Congress.
But no matter the forum, and his place in it, Curbelo says he will keep pushing for Republican-driven action.
“One of the big criticisms of Republicans today is it isn’t the party of solutions anymore,” Curbelo said. “Do you want to try to solve big problems and save the planet and a lot of coastal communities, or do you want to exploit this for political gain?”
