Wednesday, March 09, 2016 12:30:08 AM
Conservative businessman to bankroll Republicans who support clean energy
Jay Faison’s pledge part of tentative effort among small number of Republicans to try to move party away from default position of climate denial
Jay Faison said he was making a significant intervention in the 2016 elections in the hopes
of promoting a conservative clean energy agenda. Photograph: Jim Young/Reuters
Suzanne Goldenberg US environment correspondent
@suzyji
Wednesday 9 March 2016 07.12 AEDT
Last modified on Wednesday 9 March 2016 07.33 AEDT
A conservative entrepreneur pledged to bankroll Republican candidates who support clean energy on Tuesday in an attempt to break down the party’s wall of climate denial.
Jay Faison, a North Carolina businessman, said he was making a significant intervention in the 2016 elections through his ClearPath .. https://clearpath.org/ .. foundation, in the hopes of promoting what he called a conservative clean energy agenda.
The effort, which involves raising $5m for a Super Pac, a $1m digital ad campaign, and the hiring of a number of key staffers for a Washington DC office, represents a renewed effort by Faison to get his party to change its position on energy and climate change.
--
Oil and gas industry has pumped millions into Republican campaigns
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/03/oil-and-gas-industry-has-pumped-millions-into-republican-campaigns
--
That vision would be unrecognisable to supporters of Barack Obama’s climate plan, however. Faison opposes the Environmental Protection Agency rules for clean power plants and is no fan of solar power or wind energy.
But the businessman maintained he was trying to push his fellow Republicans into a cultural shift.
“Our mission is to make conservative clean energy a priority for the GOP,” Faison told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington.
Faison conceded $5m for a Super Pac was small beer amid this billion-dollar US presidential election, but he said such a sum could influence congressional races. “I think we can do it. It might take some time, but I think we can do it.”
The intervention was part of a tentative effort among a very small number of Republicans to try to move the party away from a default position of climate denial and obstruction maintained since Obama’s first days in the White House.
Faison first came on the scene last June when he announced he had sold his audio visual company SnapAV and was plunging his $165m into a foundation to promote climate science and market-based solutions to global warming.
The businessman last year had focused more directly on opposing climate denial. His latest intervention, however, sidesteps the issue.
Faison said neither party offered what he called conservative, or free market, approaches to clean energy.
“We had windmills and sunshine on the left and we had ‘drill, baby, drill’ on the right,” Faison said. “I thought that was a vacuum we could fill.”
Republicans’ current posture of climate denial was hurting the party, he added.
Like his fellow Republicans in Congress, Faison admitted on Tuesday that he opposed the EPA rules cutting emissions from power plants. “We don’t think that the EPA structure, the clean power plan, is ideal,” he said.
The ClearPath vision of clean energy relies exclusively on hydro power, clean coal technology, nuclear energy, and natural gas – and omits any reference to solar or wind power.
But Faison’s intervention, though limited, could still shake up a party whose leading presidential contenders openly deny the existence of climate change, or rely heavily on funding from the fossil fuel industry .. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/03/oil-and-gas-industry-has-pumped-millions-into-republican-campaigns .
Faison acknowledged his $5m Super Pac was unlikely to force Donald Trump or Ted Cruz to change their positions. “I don’t think I am a big enough dog in that fight to have that kind of an outcome,” he said.
But he said he hoped to influence congressional races next November by supporting candidates who are both Republican and supporters of clean energy.
The intervention comes at a time when some Republicans are beginning to edge away from climate denial – emboldened by the pope’s embrace of the issue .. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/16/us-catholic-leadership-pope-francis-climate-change , or fears of losing support from younger voters and women.
Some of the potential beneficiaries of Faison’s cash are already beginning to stick their heads above the parapets to call for action on climate change – such as the 10 Republicans who broke party ranks .. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/17/republican-congress-climate-change-action-rebellion .. last September to call for movement on the issue.
--
Which issue do you want US election candidates to discuss?
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/01/us-election-2016-issues-candidates-voters
--
Others are trying to overcome political divisions around climate change.
Last month, two members of Congress from Miami – Carlos Curbelo, a Republican, and Ted Deutch, a Democrat – launched the Climate Solutions Caucus, in the first attempt in years to find a political consensus on climate change.
Faison, however, is focused on reforming his own party. He said his Super Pac would only fund Republicans, and that he is willing to overlook candidates’ positions on climate change, so long as they back his energy plan. “We support people that support conservative clean energy and we don’t have to agree on climate change,” he said.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/08/jay-faison-support-republicans-climate-denial-energy
.. it's good to see a wealthy conservative contributing in a meaningful way
to move his party back toward more rational positions on important issues of our time ..
Jay Faison’s pledge part of tentative effort among small number of Republicans to try to move party away from default position of climate denial
Jay Faison said he was making a significant intervention in the 2016 elections in the hopes
of promoting a conservative clean energy agenda. Photograph: Jim Young/Reuters
Suzanne Goldenberg US environment correspondent
@suzyji
Wednesday 9 March 2016 07.12 AEDT
Last modified on Wednesday 9 March 2016 07.33 AEDT
A conservative entrepreneur pledged to bankroll Republican candidates who support clean energy on Tuesday in an attempt to break down the party’s wall of climate denial.
Jay Faison, a North Carolina businessman, said he was making a significant intervention in the 2016 elections through his ClearPath .. https://clearpath.org/ .. foundation, in the hopes of promoting what he called a conservative clean energy agenda.
The effort, which involves raising $5m for a Super Pac, a $1m digital ad campaign, and the hiring of a number of key staffers for a Washington DC office, represents a renewed effort by Faison to get his party to change its position on energy and climate change.
--
Oil and gas industry has pumped millions into Republican campaigns
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/03/oil-and-gas-industry-has-pumped-millions-into-republican-campaigns
--
That vision would be unrecognisable to supporters of Barack Obama’s climate plan, however. Faison opposes the Environmental Protection Agency rules for clean power plants and is no fan of solar power or wind energy.
But the businessman maintained he was trying to push his fellow Republicans into a cultural shift.
“Our mission is to make conservative clean energy a priority for the GOP,” Faison told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington.
Faison conceded $5m for a Super Pac was small beer amid this billion-dollar US presidential election, but he said such a sum could influence congressional races. “I think we can do it. It might take some time, but I think we can do it.”
The intervention was part of a tentative effort among a very small number of Republicans to try to move the party away from a default position of climate denial and obstruction maintained since Obama’s first days in the White House.
Faison first came on the scene last June when he announced he had sold his audio visual company SnapAV and was plunging his $165m into a foundation to promote climate science and market-based solutions to global warming.
The businessman last year had focused more directly on opposing climate denial. His latest intervention, however, sidesteps the issue.
Faison said neither party offered what he called conservative, or free market, approaches to clean energy.
“We had windmills and sunshine on the left and we had ‘drill, baby, drill’ on the right,” Faison said. “I thought that was a vacuum we could fill.”
Republicans’ current posture of climate denial was hurting the party, he added.
Like his fellow Republicans in Congress, Faison admitted on Tuesday that he opposed the EPA rules cutting emissions from power plants. “We don’t think that the EPA structure, the clean power plan, is ideal,” he said.
The ClearPath vision of clean energy relies exclusively on hydro power, clean coal technology, nuclear energy, and natural gas – and omits any reference to solar or wind power.
But Faison’s intervention, though limited, could still shake up a party whose leading presidential contenders openly deny the existence of climate change, or rely heavily on funding from the fossil fuel industry .. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/03/oil-and-gas-industry-has-pumped-millions-into-republican-campaigns .
Faison acknowledged his $5m Super Pac was unlikely to force Donald Trump or Ted Cruz to change their positions. “I don’t think I am a big enough dog in that fight to have that kind of an outcome,” he said.
But he said he hoped to influence congressional races next November by supporting candidates who are both Republican and supporters of clean energy.
The intervention comes at a time when some Republicans are beginning to edge away from climate denial – emboldened by the pope’s embrace of the issue .. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/16/us-catholic-leadership-pope-francis-climate-change , or fears of losing support from younger voters and women.
Some of the potential beneficiaries of Faison’s cash are already beginning to stick their heads above the parapets to call for action on climate change – such as the 10 Republicans who broke party ranks .. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/17/republican-congress-climate-change-action-rebellion .. last September to call for movement on the issue.
--
Which issue do you want US election candidates to discuss?
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/01/us-election-2016-issues-candidates-voters
--
Others are trying to overcome political divisions around climate change.
Last month, two members of Congress from Miami – Carlos Curbelo, a Republican, and Ted Deutch, a Democrat – launched the Climate Solutions Caucus, in the first attempt in years to find a political consensus on climate change.
Faison, however, is focused on reforming his own party. He said his Super Pac would only fund Republicans, and that he is willing to overlook candidates’ positions on climate change, so long as they back his energy plan. “We support people that support conservative clean energy and we don’t have to agree on climate change,” he said.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/08/jay-faison-support-republicans-climate-denial-energy
.. it's good to see a wealthy conservative contributing in a meaningful way
to move his party back toward more rational positions on important issues of our time ..
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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