Right-Wing Backlash Greets Modest GOP Foray Into Climate Change
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy had barely finished presenting his party’s modest plan to fight climate change when conservatives began piling on in opposition.
The free market-group American Energy Alliance dismissed it as a “Republican-led Green New Deal lite” that amounted to a “climate messaging exercise.” The libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute called it “bad policy that will not bring any political relief.”
And the Club for Growth vowed to not endorse any candidate who backs what it called the “liberal” Republican climate plan. “Besides hurting our economy, these measures will not make a single environmentalist vote for a Republican and only alienate conservatives across the country,” said Club for Growth President David McIntosh.
The blowback illustrates the challenges facing those trying to shed the Republican party’s climate-denying reputation, which alienates many young voters and polls well for Democrats. The fierce criticism also illustrates the limits of pragmatism for a party long backed by groups that question climate change.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-13/modest-gop-foray-into-climate-triggers-backlash-from-the-right?srnd=politics-vp
