The climate conversation in Washington has changed enough that Democrats and Republicans are talking climate deals. A lot of that change can be attributed to the Green New Deal, a Democratic resolution introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey.
“What we're doing with the Green New Deal is we’re putting together an army that won't just be a resolution, it's a revolution,” boasts Markey, who has served over 40 years in Congress and co-authored the last big legislative push for national climate policy a decade ago. Markey says that he and AOC “share a passion to create a movement which is going to change the relationship between the American people and the fossil fuel industry.”
That relationship is also targeted in the Green Real Deal, a market-based alternative to the Green New Deal put forward by Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida. “Fossil fuels are not our future. They just aren’t,” proclaims Gaetz, very much out of step with GOP orthodoxy in general and the current administration’s policies in particular.
Less surprising than a Republican proposing to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies is that a GOP call for climate action is coming from Florida. Gaetz, whose district in the Florida panhandle was battered by Hurricane Michael in 2018 is an ardent supporter of President Trump – except when it comes to climate science.
“You can either believe the climate deniers, or you can believe your lying eyes,” he says, “and I'm from the pro-science wing of the Republican Party.” But are there really any prospects for a legislative deal passing while a pro-fossil fuel climate denier occupies the White House?
“It's more likely to see ideas like this passing as ballot initiatives in states as test kitchens that can then kind of branch out to other states than something really holistically passing through Congress before 2020,” says Miranda Green, an energy and environment reporter covering Congress for The Hill.
Still, Green is impressed with Gaetz’s fossil fuel iconoclasm and even with Trump’s apparent need to address climate – if never actually by name – in a recent White House speech. “It shows that the issue of climate change has really put itself at the center of politics right now,” she says, “at the center of the political debate.”
Guests:
Senator Ed Markey, D-MA
Representative Matt Gaetz, R-FL
Miranda Green, Energy and Environment Reporter, The Hill
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