With Donald Trump’s election looming ahead of United Nations climate change talks to be held this month in Baku, Azerbaijan, Biden administration officials and leading Democratic Party members have given speeches one after another to urge the country to invest in renewable energy. He promised that the transition would continue. White House lawmakers tout the economic impact of billions of dollars in climate subsidies included in Biden’s anti-inflation law, and officials in California and Washington say their states are moving toward net-zero emissions. I promised to keep going.
But the U.S. officials with the most authority over the country’s energy future did not even arrive in Baku until the end of the first week of the United Nations conference, known as COP29. When Trump takes office in January, these five Republicans will enjoy unified control of the federal government, giving them wide latitude to enact (or repeal) laws that determine the country’s climate future. Become.
In an intimidating press conference held just a few hundred feet from where international negotiators have spent the week trying to hasten the transition away from fossil fuels, Republican delegates back oil, gas and even coal. Sent an offensive message. It is surrounded by signs that say “United Nations Climate Change.” (Although the parliamentary delegation is officially bipartisan, Baku’s two Democratic members did not attend the press conference.)
U.S. Representative August Pflueger, who represents the oil-rich Permian Basin in Texas and leads the Republican COP delegation, has suggested that the U.S. should withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord again. As chairman of the House Energy Committee, Pflueger will also repeal key parts of Biden’s climate policy, passed in part to move the U.S. closer to the Paris Agreement goals of limiting climate change. He emphasized the authority of the next Congress. Global warming will be less than 2 degrees Celsius). The press conference was taken as a direct rebuke of the message conveyed by the official US delegation.
“Last week, the American people overwhelmingly supported President Donald Trump’s promise to restore America’s energy dominance and lead the world in energy expansion,” he said.
Four other Republicans who joined Pflueger on stage echoed this message, emphasizing their pro-fossil fuel positions. Troy Balderson, who represents parts of Ohio rich in shale gas, defended hydraulic fracturing. Morgan Griffith, a veteran congressman from the coal-rich region of western Virginia, is the so-called clean coal Electricity with carbon capture technology and natural gas extracted from coal seams.
Jake Bittle
“Regions with natural resources should not be penalized for not considering their opportunities for a cleaner world,” Mr Griffiths said. The message echoes Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s statement to world leaders at the beginning of COP29, in which he called his country’s oil resources a “gift from God.” He criticized American media for calling Azerbaijan an “oil state.” The United States itself is the world’s largest producer of fossil fuels.
The Biden administration and elected Democrats have argued at COP and elsewhere that the Inflation Control Act (IRA) is in some ways too big to fail. That’s in part because of the bill’s hundreds of billions of dollars in manufacturing projects and tax cuts. flows to both Republicans and Democrats alike (and for new manufacturing plants, flows disproportionately to Republican districts.). In fact, more than a dozen House Republicans I have already asked the leader of the chamber.Speaker Mike Johnson, don’t water down the law.
But none of these representatives were present in Baku, and the tone adopted by Pflueger and his colleagues was decidedly more hostile to the core parts of Biden’s landmark law. Although the bill was passed after U.S. inflation had already peaked, Pfluger suggested that the renewable energy provisions in the Inflation Control Act contributed to the price hikes that angered U.S. voters.
“The United States, like many other countries around the world, is experiencing this extraordinary inflation,” he said. “We believe these cost reductions have very strong ties to energy, freeing up affordable and reliable baseload capacity. Some or parts of the IRA do not fit into that. If so, it will be considered.”
Nevertheless, the delegation stopped short of advocating a complete reversal of Biden’s energy policies.
“If there are parts of the IRA that help reduce energy costs, help Americans, and help our partners and allies access affordable and reliable energy, we are confident that they will be preserved. ” Pflueger said.
The main goal of this year’s COP is to develop an agreement on international climate change assistance, so that rich countries can help the world’s poorer countries to accelerate the energy transition and become climate resilient. They would agree to transfer hundreds of billions, even trillions, of dollars to the region. Incite disaster. Trump proposed zero commitments of this kind during his first term as president. When Grist asked Pfluger whether he supported President Trump’s renewed call to cut off this foreign aid, Pflueger did not rule out that possibility. He also seemed to suggest that future climate aid could end up supporting Republican energy priorities.
“When it comes to climate finance, if there’s something that doesn’t align or doesn’t support lowering energy costs while reducing emissions, I’m sure this Congress will look at it,” he said. said.
After the press conference, Pflueger and his colleagues were mobbed by reporters from several countries before heading off to an event promoting support for nuclear power. The U.S. State Department, which is coordinating the country’s delegation in Baku, did not respond to requests for comment on the lawmakers’ remarks ahead of publication.
