Six Republicans named to House climate panel

Six Republicans are joining the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis formed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in January.

GOP Reps. Garret Graves (La.), Morgan Griffith (Va.), Buddy Carter (Ga.), Gary Palmer (Ala.), Carol Miller (W.Va.) and Kelly Armstrong (N.D.) will be sitting on the committee, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced Thursday.

{mosads}Graves will be the lead Republican on the committee, which is chaired by Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor of Florida.

Graves, a moderate Republican, served for years on Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, helping push through a multibillion-dollar coastal restoration and levee program following Hurricane Katrina, according to E&E News.

In a statement, he thanked McCarthy “for your confidence in me and a great group of members” chosen for the panel.

“So far, the entire climate debate covers only part of the whole equation. Energy production and consumption, mitigation and adaptation, and shared responsibility must be discussed if we’re truly going to be ‘global’ in this important conversation. And at the risk of being self-serving, there is no better place on the planet to begin this conversation than coastal Louisiana. I’ll treat for lunch,” Graves said.

He also has said he believes in climate change and was backed by the Environmental Defense Fund in his 2014 congressional race.

However, according to the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental advocacy group, he scored a 0 out of 100 on its recent voting scorecard released Wednesday. That meant he voted against their stance on environmental and public health matters in each of the 35 votes they recorded.

Other panel members received low numbers on the same scale, with Griffith getting a 3, Carter a 0 and Palmer a 0.

Griffith and Carter also currently serve on the House’s Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the Environmental Protection Agency. Miller and Armstrong hail from states with big fossil fuel ties.

The climate committee was formed as Pelosi’s response to calls from progressives to form a panel designed to focus specifically on mitigating the effects of climate change. Originally, freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) had championed a committee on the Green New Deal, which would draft a plan to get the country running on 100 percent renewable energy by 2030. Pelosi instead drafted the climate crisis committee, which will have no subpoena or legislative authority.

Ocasio-Cortez said she was asked to join the committee but declined. She later introduced a House nonbinding resolution on the Green New Deal.

Updated at 5:55 p.m.