GQP Members Occasionally Flap Their Gums About Danger Of Global Warming; Zero Voted For IRA
Sen. Mitt Romney wrote a somber essay last month warning that Americans were blithely dismissing the “potentially cataclysmic threats” posed by climate change. Then last weekend, the Utah Republican voted against the largest climate legislation in U.S. history, along with all of his GOP colleagues. After decades of failure, Senate Democrats finally succeeded in passing a major climate package by using a parliamentary procedure that permits budget bills to be passed with 51 votes, rather than 60 under the filibuster rule. Today, House Democrats plan to pass the “Inflation Reduction Act” on a similar party-line vote.
The lack of Republican support for the landmark bill has some champions of centrist policymaking questioning whether it’s possible to pass major bipartisan climate legislation. Other centrists argue Republicans are only protesting the process used to advance the “Inflation Reduction Act,” which includes $369 billion in climate and energy spending. But advocates of bipartisanship all hope Republicans will remain open to future climate bills.
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Romney and eight other Republican members of Congress who have previously expressed concerns about human-caused climate change didn’t respond to questions from E&E News about the bill. They include Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, the GOP co-chairman of the Bipartisan Senate Climate Solutions Caucus, and Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, the last remaining House Republican who voted in favor of a 2009 bill that would have capped emissions and created a system for trading carbon credits. In a statement after the Sunday vote that didn’t mention climate change, Romney said the “one-sided, partisan bill” would reduce oil and gas production and described the package as “a bag of hammers.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who in 2009 co-sponsored the the failed cap-and-trade bill with Lieberman, issued a press release accusing Democrats of “turning the economy upside down and increasing taxes all in the name of climate change.” Graham is also a member of the Climate Solutions Caucus.
Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah), the founder of the Conservative Climate Caucus, didn’t respond to a request for comment on the “Inflation Reduction Act” (Climatewire, June 23, 2021). The other Republican lawmakers who didn’t respond to emailed questions about the bill were Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine as well as Reps. Garret Graves of Louisiana, Bruce Westerman of Arkansas and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania.
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https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/12/republicans-climate-vote-no-00050830