Climate denial makes GOP politicians unsustainable

As Congress resumed this week, Democrats held the gavel in the House. A key casualty of that power flip were the socalled moderate Republicans who embraced climate action either through the bills they’d introduced or their membership in the House Climate Solutions Caucus.

A dangerous narrative by opponents of rational, market-based climate solutions suggests somebody like Florida’s Rep. Carlos Curbelo lost because of his climate position. In truth he lost despite it. A strong voice for climate action in his party, he had no control over the committees that mark up the bills before going to the House floor for a vote. Instead, for example, he had to rally a small subset of Republicans to vote against a meaningless resolution condemning a carbon tax, a highly partisan and unnecessary gesture given Republican leadership (which championed the measure) was never going to bring up a carbon tax bill in the first place.

Had they brought up Curbelo’s carbon tax bill, they might have saved his seat.

Now our climate hopes rest on an increasingly polarized Congress in which Democrats will make the calls. That gives me hope.

I’m a conservative who proudly served our nation in the U.S. Army. When I came home, I used veterans’ benefits to become the first generation in my family to attend college. At Texas A&M, I had the pleasure of serving as chairman of the Brazos County Young Republicans and risk management director for the Texas Federation of College Republicans, yet I’m here to say this power shift from red to blue in the House will be a good thing for climate action.

However, the moment needs more Republicans willing to exercise courageous leadership, cross the aisle, take a seat at the bill-drafting table and be part of the process — instead of just throwing out sound bites pulled from outdated talking points.

Earlier this year, I joined republicEn.org — an organization of conservatives who believe free enterprise can solve climate change — and I’m happy to be part of that community. We have made real gains expanding our nonpartisan ranks.

But some doubters, including President Donald Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, still don’t get it. When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report came out warning of the irreversible effects of climate change, instead of taking the findings seriously and looking to the conservative, economicbased solutions presented by advocates such as Nobel Prize winner William Nordhaus, Trump questioned the political motivations of the scientists. He ignored that the IPCC report is based on more than 6,000 scientific references from 91 authors across 40 countries.

No wonder candidates with an R next to their names from purple districts lost. Their association with such a short-sighted refusal to accept reality was too much to overcome.

Like many in my generation, I’m tired of waiting for GOP leadership to catch up to the 21st century. Millennials want to do something about climate change and the irrefutable impacts of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. The world has a little more than a decade to act on climate change before we pass the point of no return.

Climate hoaxers can debate the science all they want; I’m cheering for lawmakers from both parties committed to climate action. All Americans need and deserve elected leaders who plan to act on climate change. We need elected leaders who are ready to put plans in place to make the world better, safer and more sustainable.

I’m not the only conservative millennial with an identity crisis. We want to belong to a movement that is forward-thinking and acts with integrity. We want to focus on the pressing issues of the day and plan for the future. We don’t want membership in a club of the close-minded, desperately clutching their stale excuses.

I hope in my lifetime to see the Republican Party come back to its senses. And I hope by the time it does, it’s not too late.