Former GOP Senator Calls for Passing 'Conservative, Sensible' Climate Policies

Former GOP Senator Calls for Passing ‘Conservative, Sensible’ Climate Policies

On this week’s Political Climate: a check-in on COP25, a dozen bipartisan clean energy bills, and why one former senator wants lawmakers to stop treating climate like a “political football.”

Julia Pyper December 12, 2019

Julia Pyper

Senior Editor
Greentech Media

Julia Pyper is a Senior Editor at Greentech Media covering the energy transition. She is also the host and producer of the Political Climate podcast. She previously reported for E&E Publishing, and has covered clean energy and climate change issues across the U.S. and abroad, including in India, Haiti, Israel and the Maldives. She holds degrees from McGill and Columbia Universities. Find her on Twitter @JMPyper.

It’s week two of the United Nations' COP25 climate summit, and it’s the last few days Congress will be in session before the winter recess.

What have American policymakers accomplished?

On this episode of Political Climate, we get an update from the U.S. Climate Action Center, representatives of which are on site at the U.N. climate talks. We look at wildfire victim relief in California. And we discuss 12 pieces of clean energy legislation that House Republicans are calling on Democrats to support. What are the political strategies at play?

Plus, a prominent former senator weighs in on the climate, energy and security nexus and how to avoid the game of “political football” that climate policy has become today.

Later in this show, we speak to former Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire about what she calls “commonsense” solutions to combat climate change.