Face-Off Over Climate
Citizens Climate Lobby, a group that advocates the phased-in imposition of a fee on fossil fuels that would be rebated in full to households, claimed a significant victory on Monday in announcing that Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican seeking re-election to represent New York’s First Congressional District, has joined its bipartisan House Climate Solutions Caucus.
But Mr. Zeldin’s opponent in the Nov. 8 election, former Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, dismissed Mr. Zeldin’s move, calling the congressman “an avowed climate change denialist” who joined the caucus only after she had expressed a desire to join it, should she be elected to Congress. While Mr. Zeldin has joined the caucus, he has not endorsed Citizens Climate Lobby’s policy of a fee on fossil fuels.
The stated goal of the caucus is to “explore policy options that address the impacts, causes, and challenges of our changing climate.” Mr. Zeldin is one of four new members to the caucus, which must be equally represented by Democrats and Republicans.
Ashley Hunt-Martorano, the climate lobby’s director of marketing and events and a former co-leader of its Long Island chapter, called it the “Noah’s Ark caucus,” meaning that members can only join in pairs, each representing one of the two major political parties to maintain its bipartisan status. There are currently 20 members.
“Clearly, there are a lot more Democrats interested in joining the caucus, which is an easier task with the political climate,” Ms. Hunt-Martorano said on Tuesday. There is a waiting list for Democrats who want to join, she said, but to do so they would “need to find a partner across the aisle to work with.” The climate lobby’s 300-plus chapters across the country, she said, “are working with their elected Republican officials to try and get them to join the caucus so other Democrats can come along.”
Nonetheless, Ms. Hunt-Martorano said, she is “beyond thrilled” that Mr. Zeldin joined the House Climate Solutions Caucus. “It’s a major step forward,” she said. “He’s a Republican, and the Republican position on solving the issue of climate change for quite a long time has been unnecessarily politicized.” Mr. Zeldin’s move “demonstrates that while the party line has been to ignore or actually deny this problem, he’s not doing that.” Citizens Climate Lobby, she said, is dedicated to solving the environmental crisis that climate scientists warn is looming, “not creating more debate or divisiveness.”
Ms. Throne-Holst said that she is a C.C.L. member and “would look forward to serving” on the bipartisan caucus. Of Mr. Zeldin, “I have a feeling he has a slightly different agenda,” she said. “You can join these things to be helpful or to be obstructive. . . . Once I started talking about this as one of my goals as representative of the district, he joined it. He had plenty of opportunities to do it prior.”
In a statement issued by his campaign, Mr. Zeldin voiced support for “an all-of-the-above energy strategy that includes wind, solar, and other clean and green energy technology, all of which protects the environment and promotes America’s energy independence, while ensuring that energy prices go down for Long Island ratepayers, who have some of the highest electric bills in the country.” He said that the Long Island Power Authority should embrace alternative energy technologies and emphasized the importance of protecting shorelines through “coastal and wetland restoration projects that will use the natural environment to prevent erosion.”
Ms. Throne-Holst said that she supports development of offshore wind farms but, like Mr. Zeldin, stressed a need to protect the commercial fishing industry from negative impacts. “We are a district that is almost uniquely well positioned,” she said. “We’re surrounded by water, we have an abundance of wind, an abundance of sun. . . . We could sooner rather than later get to an independence from fossil fuels. No question, there will be a transition period, but we could ramp up that effort very rapidly and be a leader in getting there. The net positive for people’s utility rates would be significant, not to mention reduction in our carbon footprint and meeting sustainability goals that have an effect on our environment and economy.”
Citizens Climate Lobby does not endorse candidates, and Ms. Hunt-Martorano emphasized the organization’s commitment to working with both parties to address climate change. “We understand the political reality,” she said. “Republicans are in the majority in the House, and likely will be after the election.” Regardless of the political composition of Congress, “our organization has committed to passing climate legislation in 2017,” she said. “That’s why we’re doing hard work with Republicans such as Representative Zeldin, building relationships and doing that work.”
The group proposes an initial $15-per-ton fee on carbon dioxide emissions of fossil fuels to be imposed at the point of entry, be it a mine, well, or port. That, its members argue, would account for the true cost, creating a level playing field for all energy sources. A 2013 study it commissioned by the analytics firm Regional Economic Models concluded that during its first 20 years a fee-and-dividend policy would result in a 50-percent reduction of carbon emissions below 1990 levels, the addition of 2.8 million jobs, and, as a result of a reduction in air pollutants, the avoidance of 230,000 premature deaths.
Ms. Hunt-Martorano called this a market-driven policy, making it more attractive to Republicans than subsidies, regulation, or executive actions. “Economic reports demonstrate our policy is the most progressive and libertarian policy out there,” she said. “Progressive because it protects low and middle-income people, and libertarian because it will correct market distortion by making the energy sector more a free market. Right now, we’re propping up fossil fuels, and they’re cheaper than they should be.” Republicans, she said, “are seeing there is room for an economic policy that has climate co-benefits.”