The Senate’s fledgling bipartisan climate caucus, once formally unveiled, will boast an influential founding member: Energy and Natural Resources chairwoman Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Murkowski told the Washington Examiner she is participating in the caucus, expected to be launched soon by Republican Mike Braun of Indiana and Democratic Chris Coons of Delaware.
The caucus, which would be the first such bipartisan climate group in the Senate chamber, is meant to be a venue for lawmakers to find ways to address climate change that they agree on.
“We’re going to introduce a climate caucus,” Braun said during remarks at a Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee hearing Oct. 17.
“I think this is a defining issue going forward,” he added. “We just need to figure out how we do it in a way that we can pay for it, that everyone is engaged and also how we get the rest of the world involved in doing it, I think, with the conscientious effort and speed you’re going to see in this country.”
Any compromises the caucus seeks likely won’t include the Green New Deal, the ambitious policy floated by progressive Democrats that has drawn heavy fire from Republicans and even concern from some centrist Democrats. But it could include boosting clean energy research and development, something lawmakers in both parties have said is a priority.
Murkowski has crossed party lines on climate policy in the past. She and her Democratic counterpart on the energy panel, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, have held a number of hearings this year on technologies to cut greenhouse gas emissions, including advanced nuclear power, energy efficiency, and carbon capture and storage.
The Alaska senator said she’ll lean on that experience in her work with the caucus.
“I think we’ve got a lot to contribute to the conversation just in terms of what’s going on with technologies that are going to help make a difference,” Murkowski told the Washington Examiner.
Murkowski added that having a caucus, “something more structured,” would be beneficial to broader climate policy conversations in the Senate.
The House has had its own bipartisan caucus for several years, first formed in 2016 by Florida Congressmen Ted Deutch and Carlos Curbelo. That caucus currently has 63 members — 22 Republicans and 41 Democrats. Members had initially joined in bipartisan pairs, though several Republicans in the caucus, including Curbelo, lost their seats in 2018.
At least one other Senate committee leader is interested in joining the new caucus, too. Senator Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Senate environment committee, told the Washington Examiner he’d join the group, depending on what the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ are.
“We have a lot of caucuses. Some of them don’t do a lot,” Carper said. “This is one that may have some real potential.”
