Mitch Perry
Bob Inglis believes that climate change is man-made and very real, and he’s trying to persuade his fellow conservatives to believe that as well.
Cynics might say he’s fighting a losing cause, but the former U.S. Representative from South Carolina thinks there are free enterprise solutions to climate change, and is convinced it’s the elixir that will allow Republicans to support efforts to combat global warming.
“That’s what I believe will move the needle here,” Inglis told this reporter on WMNF-FM’s MidPoint program Friday afternoon. “It’s a matter of showing Republican officeholders that there’s a path forward. But mostly that will come from Republican rank-and-file folks, supporting those leaders in saying, ‘yes, we’ll follow you.'”
Inglis is the in the Tampa Bay area for a number of public appearances this week. In the aftermath of his 2010 drubbing to Tea Party favorite Trey Gowdy, Inglis formed the Energy and Enterprise Initiative, a think tank at George Mason University devoted to pushing free-enterprise climate solutions. He was part of a panel discussion on Friday afternoon on the SPC-Seminole campus for the New Ideas conference moderated by U.S. Rep. David Jolly.
He originally represented South Carolina in Congress from 1992 to 1998. During that time he said he didn’t heed concerns about climate change, but he adjusted his attitude after he decided to re-enter the political fray in 2004. That’s when, he said, his 18-year-old son said he’d get his vote, but told him outright, “You’re going to clean up your act on the environment.” That led Inglis to look at the science, he says.
Inglis supports Floridians for Solar Choice, the umbrella group of conservative and progressive organizations aiming to put a constitutional amendment on the next year’s ballot that would allow homeowners to purchase solar power from other businesses. That’s led to a bitter divide among conservative tea party-type groups in Florida, with critics such as Americans for Prosperity contending that the amendment calls for subsides for the solar power industry. Proponents disagree.
“Where are the subsidies?” Inglis said. “I think that’s what you can expect from people with entrenched interests. Typically they oppose innovation.” He said the true conservative approach would be for Congress to eliminate subsidies for all forms of energy.
The Washington Monthly reported in 2011 that energy subsidies cost American taxpayers about $20 billion a year, with 70 percent of that going toward, oil, natural gas and coal. Fifteen percent went to ethanol, while large hydro-power companies received another 10 percent. The remaining 5 percent went to green renewables such as wind, solar and geothermal.
Inglis is hardly a mushy moderate. He boasted a 93 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union when he ran for re-election in 2010, but his stances on climate and a few other key issues made him a piñata for hardline conservatives who took pride in defeating him that year.
The Republican Party’s aversion to acknowledging climate change seemed to reach its Orwellian apotheosis this past week. It was reported that Gov. Rick Scott had told staff members at the Department of Environmental Protection to refrain from using the terms “global warming” and/or “climate change,” leading Daily Show host Jon Stewart and his writers to mercilessly lampoon Florida earlier this week.
Inglis, though, says mocking or putting Republicans on the defensive by calling them names such as “denialists” is not the way to change their behavior.
“The environmental left likes to name and shame conservatives to get them on awkward positions on something like climate. But you know, that’s not going to help us. What we’ve got to do is give them a little space so that they can back off of this awkward position of denying the science.”
Inglis voted against the cap-and-trade proposal in the House in 2009, but he does support a carbon tax, but only if it’s revenue neutral. That means that there must be other changes to the tax system so Americans ultimately aren’t paying any more out of their wallet to the federal government. He also said it must be “border adjustable,” as a way to bring in China, the world’s biggest producer of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas. He said that would happen by removing our taxes on exports, but impose them on countries that don’t have a carbon tax. He said if that were to be upheld by the World Trade Organization, “Then China would follow us in imposing a carbon tax internally. Then the whole world would follow.”
He acknowledged that will be a tough sell to his GOP brethren, and said, it can’t realistically happen in the current Congress.
He said Tampa Bay area residents can engage many of the Republican presidential candidates on their climate change stances during the next 18 months. “Your listeners could have a big impact on this,” he said, referring to the March 15 GOP primary election. “Perhaps they can ask the question this way: Can free enterprise solve climate change? In other words, don’t ask the question, ‘Is climate change a fact? Is it real, is is human caused?’ Any of that. That obviously puts the candidate in a defensive position, as they’re answering in front of a crowd that is conditioned by listening to various news outlets to disbelieve the scientists. So, ask the candidates, ‘can free enterprise solve climate change?'”
He said he defies a Republican presidential candidate to answer the question in the negative.
We’ll be watching.
