Newsflash: young conservatives want climate action.
(But we knew that.)
According to a new survey issued by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 80 percent of voters between the ages of 18 to 29 say that global warming is “a major threat to human life on earth.” 82 percent of women and 76 percent of men call climate change a “major threat.”
“While the boomers are still trying to decide whether or not scientists can be trusted, our kids are saying, ‘Save the planet,” said Shane Bemis, the Republican mayor of Gresham, Oregon and co-chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ youth engagement efforts.
This information comes at a time when Republican House leadership, in response to pressure from the rising generation of voters, is pulling together a package of bipartisan bills that would have some impact on climate change. “We’ve got to actually do something different than we’ve done to date,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in an October interview with the Washington Examiner. “For a 28-year-old, the environment is the No. 1 and No. 2 issue.”
“I respect those who have been working for years to make incremental progress with Republicans. That is an important step,” Alliance for Market Solutions (AMS) ED Alex Flint said. “It is an inadequate step.” AMS is an ally in the push for a revenue neutral, border adjustable carbon tax.
“You can’t win suburban districts with retro positions on climate,” said Bob Inglis, whose op-ed, The young are leading Texas’ conservative climate movement, was published in the Austin Statesman over the weekend. He writes: “These young conservatives see in climate change an opportunity to prove the truth of free enterprise principles. They’re done with the old merchants of doubt tropesit’s sunspots, volcanoes, tilts of the earth; the scientists are on the take; more CO2 will make plants grow even better; and warming could generally be a good thing.”