FEELING THE FEVER OF CLIMATE CHANGE
This Republican knows our party must change or we will be replaced
It’s OK to believe in climate change and be Republican.
Actually, it’s OK to believe in climate change and be a good Republican.
A few months ago, I had lunch with a senior Republican official in Arizona. The conversation shifted to the environment and renewable energy.
I told him that I thought climate change was a problem, and that the federal and state government and utilities should be investing in renewable energy, energy efficiency and other clean technologies that are now the most affordable energy source available.
He laughed and said he didn’t think there was such a thing as a conservative and an environmentalist.
Like many Republican leaders, he has missed the change in attitude on this topic, especially among Republican voters. He doesn’t yet understand that the clean stuff is the most economic.
For decades, far too many Republicans have believed that any nod in the direction of pro-environmental policy meant the Environmental Protection Agency would, under the guise of protecting the environment, impose staggering new taxes, confiscate land and essentially destroy our way of life.
The spotted owl became a symbol to Republican stalwarts of a federal government run amok. Most Republicans in the ’90s believed environmentalists were more willing to protect an owl than a person’s livelihood.
As the saying goes, “That was then, and this is now.”
The future of clean energy won’t be found in U.S. Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez’s “Green New Deal.” But Republican voters are smart enough to understand that her extreme position doesn’t negate the need to act on climate change. Republican voters are agreeing that it’s OK to be green. Importantly, financial advisory firm Lazard noted in a recent report that renewable energy often beats coal on cost, even without subsidies or tax incentives. So, green also means dollar savings.
We’ve come a long way in a decade, and now renewable energy is also a fiscally re-