While many environmentalists fear that the second Trump administration will hurt climate mitigation efforts at home and abroad, a growing number of conservative-leaning organizations are holding out hope.
These organizations, including the Rainey Center, Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, and the American Conservation Coalition, have been leading the way in climate policy discussions on the right, with one key factor uniting them: Women leading the charge.
On the heels of International Women’s Day on March 8, the Washington Examiner released a docuseries diving into why these women founders and leaders are passionate about climate and clean energy reform and why they say the new Trump administration creates an opportunity for meaningful policy.
For several of these women, the conservation around tackling climate change and global warming can’t even begin without looking at energy.
A consensus is emerging within the conservative climate movement that the U.S. cannot properly tackle emissions reductions without meeting rising energy demand.
This aligns with much of the administration’s energy policy, which is to pursue a ramp-up in domestic energy production to meet the rising demand created by artificial intelligence, manufacturing, electrification, and more.
“I think that oftentimes the climate community has this knee-jerk reaction to immediately put their guard up and disavow anything that might stray a little bit from conventional thinking,” American Conservation Coalition CEO Danielle Franz said. “And so in the context of this new administration, I think what we should be doing is looking for context clues of what is important to this administration and where we can find common ground.”
Franz noted that many of the president’s executive orders called for streamlining the permitting process. While this will boost fossil fuel projects, it can also encourage more deployment of cleaner power sources, such as wind, hydro, and nuclear.
Permitting remains at the core of the discussions about how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for those at the forefront of the conservative climate movement.
At the same time, though, leaders on the right are encouraging Congress to take a step further to encourage reform in the private sector.
Heather Reams, president of the Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, told the Washington Examiner that policymakers should be looking for additional ways to bring down costs, innovate, and boost economic growth, thereby reducing emissions.
“So I think that public policy can do that, but it may not be as transparent as this bill passed, emissions are going to go down,” Reams said. “We need to really be looking at life cycle emissions, not just when it’s created, but the whole life cycle of something. Because it matters, because we are actually operating in lowering emissions for the long term, not just for today.”
While the conservative climate movement may not be as prominent as environmental activism on the left, it is growing both in Congress and the private sector.
And they are not alone, as tech companies and big banks are also moving toward cleaner energy sources like nuclear power to support operations and developments. Just earlier this month, several major Big Tech companies pledged to help triple nuclear power by 2050.
For these women, concerns about mitigation progress under a second Trump administration are understandable, but they still see a light at the end of the tunnel.
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The entire series on the women leading the conservative climate movement dives further into why Republicans haven’t always been out of touch with environmentalists and why they are personally invested in climate change mitigation and clean energy reform.
You can find the entire series on the Washington Examiner’s website and YouTube page here.
