What Republicans should do about climate post-midterms

The Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) $369 billion investment in American clean energy is an enormous leap forward for climate action — and not a single Republican voted for it. If Republicans gain control of one or both houses of Congress, they will face a choice: maintain their contrarian status while Democrats own the climate agenda, or use their majority to exercise conservative leadership in the clean energy policy space. 

Despite the cold shoulder they gave the IRA, Republicans, propelled by young conservatives who demand more federal action on climate change, are beginning to take climate seriously. For the first time since John McCain’s 2008 presidential run, the Republican Party finally has a climate platform. Elected Republicans appeared at last fall’s UN Climate Change Conference, and this summer a GOP task force released a six-pillar energy and climate plan. 

These are very encouraging steps. We need conservatives at the table, and the GOP plan rightly calls attention to supply-side policies that would tap into domestic resources. 

That’s the good news. The bad news is that the GOP plan focuses myopically on boosting oil and gas extraction and seems blind to other abundant domestic energy resources. It points out that the U.S. has 38 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. This is true, and the U.S. would burn through those reserves in less than a decade at our current prices and extraction rate. But we have enough renewable energy resources to meet all our domestic electricity needs by 100 times. Its devotion to fossil fuels soils the party’s sound strategies. Rather than “all of the above,” their platform veers towards “fossil fuels above all.” Fossil fuels have a role to play, but should not be front and center.

Fossil fuels have historically enjoyed favorable policy treatment. Now it’s time to maximize the present and future energy resources. Conservative voters know this — 62 percent of Republicans, including a whopping 78 percent of young Republicans, think developing renewables is more important than expanding fossil fuels. 

This presents a crucial opportunity. Instead of being the party beholden to oil, Republicans could make themselves the party of American energy abundance. An “all of the above” strategy intent on enlarging our energy production would focus on how to build more of the energy infrastructure currently blocked by regulatory, legal, and local barriers. There is an immediate opportunity for Republicans to steer the current policy debate. After unanimously voting against the IRA, Republicans have sent mixed signals about a follow-up bill to streamline transmission and other energy infrastructure permitting. By working with Democrats, they could help slash red tape and free businesses to build while burnishing their credentials as leaders of an energy abundance agenda. 

The GOP wants to “unlock American resources” and “let America build.” These plans should fold in our abundant geothermal, wind and solar, and build the state-of-the-art transmission infrastructure needed to get those resources to market. Tapping into those resources will create a resilient energy infrastructure capable of supporting made-and-charged in America electric vehicles, and keep the lights on in the face of storms, floods and wildfires. Republicans could also lead the charge to unlock the resources held in our farms and forests by hastening the adoption of common sense practices like precision agriculture, cover cropping, and longer rotations. 

Another priority should be to update the Beat China and Russia section of their energy plan to include a border-adjusted carbon policy. This would let domestic industries take advantage of their low-carbon intensity relative to China. It doesn’t leave America lagging as other countries move ahead with border adjustments and the technological innovations they incentivize.  

For a decade, some Republicans have called climate change a hoax, while others looked the other way. Today, more elected Republicans are finally opening their eyes to the fact that climate change is happening, is caused by our burning of fossil fuels, and is exacerbating deadly and costly heat waves, wildfires and floods. Now, Republicans must take the difficult step of doing something about it. Instead of being lackeys for oil, they could be leaders for American energy abundance, using our resources to build a bountiful future, and catalyzing market forces to grow innovative, made-in-America, low-carbon solutions. 

Kristin Eberhard is director of climate policy at the Niskanen Center.