Climate vs. energy fight snags Texas Democrats
Green New Deal by progressives puts state members in Congress on spot
WASHINGTON — Houston Democrat Lizzie Fletcher was elected to Congress last November as part of a progressive groundswell against President Donald Trump, winning over a stretch of wealthy Houston suburbs where the oil industry has long reigned supreme and Democrats had not won an election since the late 1960s.
But within a month of her taking office, Democrats’ potential headwinds in suburban Texas are in full view as a proposal from the party’s progressive wing to rapidly shift the United States away from fossil fuels gains momentum amidst increasingly dire forecasts on climate change.
“I don’t think it’s something you want to touch with a 10-foot pole in our district,” said David Feldwisch, a Fletcher supporter and president of the Upper Kirby-based civic group Oil Patch Democrats. “Even with Democrats, you’re not going to find anyone denying climate change, but you’re going to find a split between people who want to do something really drastic right now and people who want to something more gradual.”
As the newly resurgent Democratic Party pushes Congress to consider climate change legislation for the first time since 2009, Democrats from oil-rich states like Texas are being pulled between the party’s growing call for carbon-free energy and the drilling industry that has long driven their economy.
While the so-called Green New Deal proposed by rising progressive star Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez, D-N.Y., might play well in Democratic strongholds like New York and California, in Texas any shift away from the oil and gas sector is viewed hesitantly for its potential to wreak havoc on the state economy.
Matt Angle, director of the Lone Star Project, a Washingtonbased consulting firm that works with Democratic candidates in Texas, said it was crucial that
Democrats presented a pragmatic approach to climate change that did not “arbitrarily put the brakes on fossil fuels.”
“Within the Texas delegation there are some pretty cool heads on energy issues,” he said. “I think you’ll find that Ocasio-Cortez has brought energy, but the substance is going to be worked out by people with progressive credentials but also real experience and understanding of what’s palpable politically.”
So far Texas Democrats in Washington are largely taking a wait-and-see approach, awaiting draft legislation from Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, DMass., a Washington veteran whose landmark climate legislation came close to passing into law a decade ago.
Fletcher, a former energy attorney and chair of the House Science Space and Technology’s subcommittee on Environment, said it was critical Texas plays a prominent role as climate policy is worked out.
“It’s good to have excitement and attention focused on our energy future,” she said in an interview. “Houston is the energy capitol of the world. Any conversation about our energy future we need to be a part of.”
Among Democrats in Washington, Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal is being embraced but only to a point. Initially proposed late last year as a 10-year plan to convert the U.S. power grid to 100 percent renewable energy and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector through a massive federal investment, those goals have already been dismissed by many Democrats as unrealistic.
Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire and former Republican mayor of New York City who is considering a presidential run, has himself endorsed a Green New Deal but called Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal “pie in the sky.” And even some environmentalists concede the politics of shifting away from fossil fuels so quickly will be difficult.
Luke Metzger, director of the advocacy group Environment Texas, said while he believed decarbonizing the U.S. economy over the next decade to be “absolutely necessary,” he understood getting Texas Democrats on board would be a tall order.
“That’s going to be politically tougher,” he said. “Texas is different than California and New York. The pressures are different.”
For now, there is little expectation of a Green New Deal coming for a vote anytime soon.
Even if Democrats were to win enough support to pass legislation out of the House, Republicans control the Senate and White House and so far have dismissed the Green New Deal as a non-starter. The current push is widely viewed as an opening move by Democrats, to have legislation ready should the 2020 election go their way.
It is enough to get the attention of oil and gas lobbyists, who are painting Ocasio-Cortez as naive of the energy sector and the damage that such a dramatic shift could have on the national economy.
“Frankly, they’ve done a good job of framing the issue. The problem is what they’re asking for,” said Scott Segal, a Washington energy attorney with clients in the oil and gas sector. “If you mandate that which is not technologically achievable, you end up getting your mandate repealed and the movement gets set back.”
For Texas Democrats, just the perception they are Green New Dealers risks alienating many of the independent voters they made gains with in the last election and hope to ride to victory in 2020.
Last week, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced it would be targeting six congressional seats in Texas, including Houston-area Republicans Michael McCaul and Pete Olson. And critical to that election will be centrist Texans who “while liking the environment also like jobs,” said Mark Jones, a political science fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute.
“The Green New Deal has the potential to help the Republicans running for these seats,” he said. “You can imagine the campaign: ‘My opponent is going to be voting with Nancy Pelosi and Alexandra Ocasio Cortez to end fossil fuels by 2025.’”
But like politicians anywhere in the United States, Texas Democrats also face an increasingly vocal coalition demanding politicians heed scientists’ warning that climate change an existential threat to the planet.
Their numbers might not be as large as other parts of the country, but they are not going to walk away quietly either, said Feldwisch, of the Oil Patch Democrats, who described himself as deeply concerned about climate change but supportive of a gradual approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“The environmentalists are very strong and have a very loud voice,” he said of the Texas Democratic Party. “They drive the policy quite a bit compared to other people.”