South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s looming entrance into the 2016 race means there would be at least one GOP presidential candidate who believes man-made climate change is real and government must act to stop it. Are any Republicans with him?
Former Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., who blames his 2010 primary defeat in part on his belief in global warming, thinks the GOP’s views on climate could change soon. Inglis’ global warming views made him the 2015 recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award — an honor previously bestowed upon 9/11 first responders and former President George H.W. Bush.
Inglis told the Washington Examiner he hopes candidates stop talking about their belief in global warming and start answering questions about how to solve climate change issues through private enterprise.
“We’re anticipating some candidate or candidates are going to have this breakaway moment when they say, ‘the question is whether free enterprise can solve climate change, and the answer is yes,’ ” Inglis said. “My party became the ‘Grumpy Old Party,’ and now we’re coming back to ourselves as the ‘Grand Opportunity Party.’ ”
Inglis said he has talked with Graham’s staff and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s staff about breaking away from the Republican Party on climate change, and hopes that Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul may consider doing so as well.
Graham has unapologetically declared his belief in climate change, and did so last month in New Hampshire. But Bush and Paul have offered more nuanced explanations. Bush said the climate is changing, but added that man’s impact remains unknown.
“I don’t think the science is clear what percentage is man-made and what percentage is natural,” Bush said in New Hampshire. “It’s this intellectual arrogance that now you can’t even have a conversation about it.”
In an interview with HBO’s Bill Maher last fall, Paul indicated that he would want any attempt to address climate change come from the private sector. Paul — along with fellow presidential contenders such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio — has signed Americans for Prosperity’s “No Climate Tax” pledge. The signees of the pledge have agreed to “oppose any legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue.” Cruz has gone a step farther to challenge climate change activists, and said, “The global warming alarmists are the equivalent of the flat-Earthers.”
Some on the Left have begun to look to Republicans to solve climate change. Slate recently wrote, “America’s best hope for near-term climate action is a Republican” and “Lindsey Graham is our best hope to stop global warming. He should run for president.”
Inglis holds a similar view, and added that the American people would not listen to climate change alarmists and yearn for a levelheaded approach.
“We’ve gone from this atheism on climate to agnosticism to the brief period we’re in now of defeatism, and we’re going to come out of that — and I think it will be in the ’16 cycle,” Inglis said. “It’s also true that the solution to climate change is going to come from conservatives, it’s not going to come from liberals.”
Earlier this week, President Obama linked climate change to the spread of Islamic terrorism and the outbreak of civil war in Syria. Inglis, on the other hand, thinks it could be linked to the Republican Party’s path back to the White House.
