House Republicans predicted how their party would approach climate and energy policies if they won a majority in the House of Representatives at an event at the United Nations climate summit, known as COP27, this week in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The GOP delegation to COP27 included members of the Conservative Climate Caucus, who sit on critical House committees dealing with issues related to regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy policy.
Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana, senior member of the House Select Committee on Climate, and the other Republicans at the summit said the US shouldn’t demonize fossil fuels like natural gas and that these types of fuels can still be part of the energy transition to a cleaner one energy system.
“The goal we’re trying to attack here is that emissions aren’t the source of energy, and I think our research and development needs to focus on the types of energy resources that each country has, and in the United States, one of them.” is oil and gas, 30 times the energy density of the closest renewables,” he said.
Rich Powell, Co-Chair of the Conservative Climate Foundation, left, moderates a panel entitled Conservative Solutions to Global Climate Challenges: A Robust US Energy, Climate and Conservation Agenda with Heather Reams, President of Citizens for Responsible Energy (second left) from left, Solutions, U.S. Rep. John Curtis of Utah, U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, in the US Pavilion the UN climate summit COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on November 11, 2022.
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He added: “So one of the things we should be doing is not attacking oil and gas, but attacking the emissions associated with it, where it’s indistinguishable from other renewable energy technologies, to where it can be an arrow in the quiver of us.” trying to achieve our goals of energy, affordability, reliability, cleanliness, exportability and supply chain security.”
Graves also said the country needs to invest more to help communities in areas vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as the United States. B. near the coast to adapt to the effects of climate change or to become more resilient as the costs of recovery from extreme storms become too high.
“This is about investing in communities where you have vulnerabilities and making sure those communities are resilient enough to withstand those storms and catastrophic events that ensure we don’t keep stepping in to put the pieces back together.” keep coming and spending those billions of dollars,” he said.
The delegation stressed that their caucus represents Republicans who care about protecting the planet and have no doubt that climate change is an issue that should be addressed, but they disagree with what they call “radical environmentalism.” stating that the world will end if we don’t shut down all fossil fuels immediately and that wind and sun are the only solutions.
“I distinguish between radical environmental protection and rational environmental protection. Radical environmental protection is what we mostly see. And that continues solutions that are downright scary and foolish,” said Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, referring to rhetoric that says the world is on fire and attributes all extreme weather events to climate change.
US Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, attends a panel discussion titled Conservative Solutions to Global Climate Challenges: A Robust US Energy, Climate and Conservation Agenda in the US Pavilion at the COP27 UN Climate Change Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, part , on November 11, 2022.
Thomas Hartwell/AP
“There is a price. There are issues that we should address and that we have an interest in mitigating,” Crenshaw said. “There are conservation efforts that we have an interest in continuing. Absolutely. But let’s not lie to our children and scare them to death and tell them that’s why they’re going to be burned alive, because that’s not the way it is. That’s not what the UN report says.”
Crenshaw called for “rational environmentalism” where both sides can agree on the need for clean air, clean water, better environmental protection and clean energy.
Crenshaw said Europe’s energy crisis has been exacerbated by countries’ efforts to switch too quickly to renewable energy, calling it a misguided “idolatry” of wind and sun as the only solution that could backfire in the long run.
“We’d better not have a higher cost for our solutions than the problem itself. Better have rational environmentalism than radical environmentalism, radical environmentalism will send us down a path of poverty and despair,” he said.
Crenshaw said the US should allow the oil and gas industry to expand so the country can export more natural gas to replace coal-fired power plants abroad, which would ultimately reduce global emissions. Panelists also said the country should also invest in more technologies, such as nuclear power, that can be harnessed in the US and exported to developing countries to help them grow their economies without increasing the use of fuels like coal.
The UN climate science panel has said the world must stop investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure as soon as possible to meet emissions reduction targets and limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and that most new infrastructure for Fossil fuels will eventually be abandoned when replaced by cleaner energy sources.
In this June 23, 2021 file photo, Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, speaks during the press conference introducing the Republican Climate Caucus outside the Capitol in Washington, DC
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Rep. John Curtis, R-Utah, said there is a strong interest among Republicans to protect the country and the environment, citing voters in his state from places like Carbon County, Utah, who reject the anti-fossil fuel rhetoric and want to be part of the solution by focusing on mining more critical minerals for clean energy technologies. But he said those projects are difficult because so much of his state is federal land, where mining projects aren’t allowed or have stricter requirements.
Curtis said the goal of the caucus will be to educate even more Republicans about what climate action looks like under Republican values and that there is room for bipartisan climate policy.
“Without Republicans participating in this debate, we’re not going to make the progress that we need to make as a country; every significant achievement in the United States has been bipartisan,” Curtis said. “The ideas, not just that, the ideas that Republicans are bringing to the table are essential to achieving the goals that we all have for a better environment,” he said.