Look Out, Mike Johnson!! The Conservative Climate Caucus Is "Concerned" About Your Stance On Climate Policy!!

[hatrack]

House Republicans who want their party to engage on climate policy will likely continue to be led over the next two years by a lawmaker who has been largely silent on the issue. Since winning the gavel in October 2023, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has done little to shed light on whether he believes human activity is contributing to the climate crisis — even as more of his members are joining caucuses designed to stop the planet from warming.

His failure so far to weigh in on the matter in a meaningful way raises questions about whether House Republican leaders will take climate members’ concerns seriously in the 119th Congress — especially with Johnson under pressure from both archconservatives as he also attends to moderates making up his narrow majority. "I’d like to hear what he has to say about it,” said Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, regarding the speaker’s climate views. Carter, a vice chair of the House Conservative Climate Caucus, was among the nearly two dozen House Republicans surveyed by POLITICO’s E&E News in recent months about whether Johnson believes in the scientific conclusions surrounding climate change.

None of them could say for sure where Johnson stood on the matter, making it hard to anticipate how the speaker will help settle internal divisions on climate and energy — especially when House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a fellow Louisianan, is vocally skeptical that humans are having a role in warming the planet.

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He has since said little else, with Johnson’s office having declined multiple requests from POLITICO’s E&E News to elaborate on the speaker’s position. And while his silence is notable given he hails from a state vulnerable to coastal erosion and flooding, it’s not surprising to people familiar with his work in the state Legislature. “There’s a reason people don’t know” his position, said Jackson Voss, a climate policy coordinator with the Louisiana-based Alliance for Affordable Energy. “Obviously, climate and the environment have not been issues that Speaker Johnson, throughout his political career, has focused on very much. He was briefly in the state Legislature, and he focused almost entirely on trying to restrict LGBTQ and abortion rights.”

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https://www.eenews.net/articles/how-will-mike-johnson-lead-republicans-on-climate-2/