As climate change worsens, Republicans insist we must do nothing
clock Back in 2008, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and former speaker Newt Gingrich recorded a television ad in which they acknowledged their bitter political differences, but made a shared commitment on one critical issue. We do agree, said Gingrich, our country must take action to address climate change. He added: If enough of us demand action from our leaders, we can spark the innovation we need. Somehow, that new Republican understanding of the importance of addressing climate change never quite caught on. If anything, as the effects of climate change intensify, the GOP has become more committed to opposing any and all efforts to do something about it. Lets take a look at some of the latest major climate news: It wouldnt be fair to portray the Republican Party as an absolute monolith on climate a smattering of Republican officials here and there say they would like to do something on climate, even if their solutions always seem to include uninterrupted drilling and burning of fossil fuels. And the Republican electorate has complicated views on the topic. Depending on how pollsters ask them, a majority of Republicans sometimes express concern about climate and support various ideas to reduce emissions. But by other measures, Republicans have actually grown less concerned about climate in recent years. If thats the case, it could be partly because the administration of Republican god-king Donald Trump was the most aggressively anti-environment in history. Or it could be because as you move down the funnel from vague popular notions to elite opinion and finally to policies the party supports, the closer you get to the apparent belief that conservative identity-signaling requires one to oppose doing anything at all to slow global warming. Take the Sarah Bloom Raskin situation. The Senate Banking Committee isnt filled with fire-breathing Republican culture warriors; some of its members, such as Tim Scott of South Carolina or Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, are what passes for serious legislators in todays GOP. But every one of them has joined in boycotting her nomination not just voting against it, but denying the committee a quorum so it cant take a vote at all. Thats even though they know theres only so much the Federal Reserve can do about climate change. What sane people like Raskin suggest is that the Fed help banks understand the risks climate change poses to their own stability, to limit economic fallout from future disasters, whether sudden or slow-moving. For instance, in 2021 natural disasters caused $145 billion in damage, a figure that included 20 separate wildfires, hurricanes, floods and storms with price tags over a billion dollars. To say the increasing frequency of such events isnt something banks need to prepare for is utterly bonkers. Yet Sen. Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the committee, is waging a crusade against Raskin. He wrote a letter to Biden lamenting the fact that no one from the fossil fuel industry sits on the Federal Reserve Board, and saying Raskins demonstrated hostility to fossil fuels is unacceptable. The other Republicans on the committee seem to agree. So today, the consensus Republican position appears to be that even thinking about climate change in economic policy is a threat to prosperity, a stunningly upside-down perspective on the future of the economy. Meanwhile, the more liberal position within the GOP is essentially that while climate change is real and perhaps we shouldnt actively work to make it worse, we shouldnt do much of anything to make it better either. This means that every step of progress we make on climate will only come after a fight. And with the power they wield, Republicans will make those fights as long and difficult as possible.