For Some Reason, Skepticism On Graves (R-LA) As New Green Face Of GOP - 3% Lifetime LCV Score, Maybe

[hatrack]

The other day, it was top Republican message-maker Frank Luntz who changed his mind about the evidence for climate change. (Luntz’s strategic spin helped the party keep its head in the sand for years, rebranding “global warming” for the less scary-sounding “climate change.) Speaking before a Senate committee hearing on climate last Thursday, Luntz said that “I’m here before you to say that I was wrong in 2001… That was a lifetime ago.” He added: “I’ve changed.”

Now it’s Louisiana Republican congressman Garret Graves who has been staking out his new position on climate change. With the aid of a PowerPoint presentation, he has been making the rounds of the House to argue that his party had “a chance to take a less obstinate position on climate change, if they were nimble enough to see it,” in the words of an article by Benjamin Wallace-Wells in the July 27, 2019 issue of The New Yorker. “And, just like that, the Republicans chose as their spokesman on climate change a gregarious, outdoorsy young man who likes to say that not only was sea-level rise real, but that he had measured it with his own yardstick.”

To be fair, Graves does speak of areas where he sees common ground with those concerned about the climate crisis; he favors measures to promote adaptation and resilience, for example (but not a carbon tax). Remarkable for someone from a state that has so many oil and gas refineries, Graves also talks of reducing emissions, moving towards renewables, updating the electrical grid, and investing in new technologies such as energy storage—language which, in some ways, sounds remarkably like the Green New Deal.

Environmentalists, however, are wary that all this may be just talk without any real change in substance—“All hat and no cattle,” as they say in next-door Texas. They note that Graves has received twice as many campaign contributions from the oil-and-gas industry as from anywhere else, and that his lifetime approval rating from the League of Conservation Voters was just three percent. Consequently, they suspect there’s just some image-buffing on.

EDIT

https://thebulletin.org/2019/07/louisiana-congressman-bets-the-era-of-climate-denial-is-over-or-does-he/

[bronxiteforever]

1. Graves is a fossil fuel huckster. He is like the tobacco hucksters of yore

In the 1960s and 1970s, Big Tobacco was widely viewed as the model for effective special-interest lobbying. Beware the GOP liars who will try to public image their way through climate change. They all have a voting record that is easy to find. Their actions and votes speak louder than their words. They are going to try this common ground bull crap. The truth is science does not care a whit about common ground. Scientific facts are facts regardless of belief. That is the whole point of science. As to common ground, it will soon be under water. What we need is higher ground.

Graves top industry campaign donor is SURPRISE
Received from Oil & Gas $213,350.00
https://votesmart.org/candidate/campaign-finance/155424/garret-graves



NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL
Scorecard
Representative Garret Graves (R)

Garret Graves Louisiana
2018 score is 0
Lifetime Score 3%

https://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/garret-graves

Here is his vote just from LAST month. Most recent vote on EPA on June 25th. He voted no (pro trump) along with Steve King from Iowa and an endless list of gopers.

FY20 Interior, Environment and related Agencies Funding Bill
House Roll Call Vote 408
Issues: Climate Change, Clean Energy, Land
Representative Serrano (D-NY) sponsored H.R. 3055, the Commerce, Justice, Science, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, 2020, which would reject the Trump Administration’s irresponsible budget cuts and increase investments to fight climate change, protect communities from toxic pollution, safeguard our lands and waters, cut air pollution, and boost clean energy. The investments in this bill would help protect kids’ health and grow our outdoor recreation economy. H.R. 3055 increases funding for the Environmental Protection Agency to specifically address environmental justice and for our land management agencies such as the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service to improve our parks and wildlife refuges. H.R. 3055 is a strong rebuke of the Trump Administration’s denial of the climate crisis, efforts to undermine environmental progress, and promotion of polluters over people. On June 25, the House approved H.R. 3055 by a vote of 227-194 (House roll call vote 408).