Conservatives from 30 states, more than half of them millennials, gathered in Washington, D.C. yesterday for the second annual Conservative Clean Energy Summit hosted by the Christian Coalition and Young Conservatives for Energy Reform. The event featured panelists reviewing recent polling data and drew a slate of Congressional speakers.
“It’s okay to admit climate change is real, and we can do something about it in a business friendly way,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told the audience. “Conservative millennials are the key to making this happen.”
“If conservation isn’t conservative words have no meaning at all,” Rep. Chris Gibson (R-NY-19) said. “You can’t just be against stuff. You have to be for things,” he advised.
In a poll commissioned by Young Conservatives for Energy Reform, taken of 940 self-identified conservatives between the ages of 18 and 35, 74 percent said we should address climate change, but only in a way that doesn’t hurt our economy. Sixty-seven percent said the longer we wait to address climate change, the heavier the tax burden on future generations, and 58 percent expressed support for a revenue-neutral carbon tax.
“We are the country of ‘Yes We Can,'” Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY-23) said to applause.