‘Would Empower China And Russia’ GOP Leaders Slam Democrats’ Climate Proposals As ‘A Grift’

Thomas Catenacci

Top House Republicans ripped the climate agenda released Thursday by the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), arguing it would weaken and hamper U.S. energy security.

The CPC agenda, which laid out dozens of executive actions the group of nearly 100 Democrats want President Joe Biden to prioritize, argued that a “climate emergency” should be declared immediately. The left-wing caucus also urged Biden to ban all new federal oil and gas leases, reinstate a crude oil export ban and expand renewable energy manufacturing using the Defense Production Act.

“There is no people-centered agenda that doesn’t include aggressive, bold climate action and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels,” the CPC said in its release on Thursday.

Republicans took issue with the plan, saying it would only set the American energy industry back and hand power to hostile foreign regimes. Republican lawmakers and fossil fuel industry groups have argued that the U.S. should open the door for more domestic oil and gas production in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which has unsettled global markets.

“The climate plan released by Congressional Progressive Caucus, which bans vast swathes of U.S. energy production and eliminates American jobs, would empower China and Russia without reducing world emissions or combatting climate change,” Republican Utah Rep. John Curtis, the founder of the Conservative Climate Caucus, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Killing American fossil fuels just causes them to be replaced by dirtier foreign sources, and in particular Chinese and Russian production,” he continued. “We should instead be attacking carbon emissions, not energy sources, through carbon capture, American innovation, natural solutions, and other paths that boost the American economy while reducing global emissions.”

The U.S. has reduced carbon emissions more than any other country in the world over the last decade as it has relied more upon natural gas. Coal, which the U.S. previously used heavily, generates far more emissions when burned than natural gas, according to the American Geosciences Institute.

Republicans in the Conservative Climate Caucus have pushed for free market solutions to global warming. They have also endorsed greater reliance on nuclear energy and an expansion of carbon capture technology that removes harmful emissions from the atmosphere.

The White House’s so-called Justice 40 report published in May 2021, though, said nuclear and carbon capture expansion wouldn’t benefit communities threatened by climate change. The CPC agenda backed full implementation of the Justice 40 report’s recommendations.

“The CPC’s climate agenda is a grift. Their policy agenda is based on a misguided belief that the United States is failing to act swiftly against climate change,” Republican South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, the ranking member on the Oversight Subcommittee on Environment, told the DCNF. “This isn’t surprising, but what is alarming is how rapidly their beliefs have taken over the Democratic Party.”

Instead of favoring more oil and gas drilling following Russia’s invasion, Democrats have largely used the crisis to argue in favor of a quicker transition to renewable energy sources. The CPC’s agenda failed to mention a critical mineral policy which is important for developing green technology.

“President Biden’s reckless spending and rush-to-green agenda has hurt our energy security and created record-high inflation and energy prices,” GOP Energy and Commerce Committee spokesperson Jack Heretik said in a statement to the DCNF. “Democrats doubling down on their radical agenda will make these crises even worse.”

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