Even as Donald Trump’s election looms at this month’s United Nations climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, Biden administration officials and prominent Democrats have delivered speeches pledging that the country’s transition to renewable energy will continue. White House representatives touted the economic benefits of billions of dollars in climate-related subsidies under Biden’s inflation reduction law, and officials in California and Washington pledged that individual states would continue their march toward net zero emissions.
But U.S. officials who have the most influence over the country’s energy future haven’t even arrived in Baku until the end of the first week of the UN conference, known as COP29. When Trump assumes the presidency in January, these five Republicans will enjoy unified control of the federal government, giving them broad authority to write (or repeal) legislation that will determine the country’s climate future.
At a huge news conference held just a few hundred feet from where international negotiators have been rushing a week-long transition away from fossil fuels, the Republican delegation delivered an aggressive message in support of oil, gas and even coal. A framed sign reads “UN Climate Change.” (The congressional delegation is officially bipartisan, but Baku’s two Democratic leaders did not attend the news conference.)
U.S. Rep. August Pfluger, who represents the oil-rich Permian Basin of Texas and leads the Republican COP delegation, has suggested that the United States should once again withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Pfluger, the leader of the House Energy Committee, also emphasized the power of the incoming Congress to repeal key parts of Biden’s climate policy. Reduce global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius). This press conference was held as a direct rebuke to the message delivered by the official U.S. delegation.
“Last week, the American people overwhelmingly supported President Donald Trump’s promise to restore America’s energy dominance and lead the world in energy expansion,” he said.
Four other Republicans on stage with Pfluger echoed that message, carrying a bag of pro-fossil fuel positions. Troy Balderson, who represents the shale gas-rich state of Ohio, defended hydraulic fracturing. Morgan Griffith, a veteran representative from the coal-rich region of West Virginia, voiced his so-called support. clean coal Powered by carbon capture technology and natural gas mined from coal seams.
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“Regions with natural resources should not be penalized because they don’t see opportunities to create a cleaner world,” Griffith said. This message echoes Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s statement to world leaders at the start of COP29. He called his country’s oil wealth “a gift from God” and chastised American media for referring to Azerbaijan as an “oil state.” The United States itself is the world’s largest producer of fossil fuels.
The Biden administration and elected Democrats have argued at COP and elsewhere that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is, in some sense, too big to fail. In part, that’s because the bill created hundreds of billions of dollars in manufacturing projects and tax breaks. Flows to both Republicans and Democrats (for new manufacturing plants) Disproportionally flowing into Republican congressional districts). In fact, more than a dozen Republican House members I have already asked the chairman of the meeting.House Speaker Mike Johnson is not trying to strike down the law.
But none of those representatives were present in Baku, and the tone adopted by Pfluger and his colleagues was clearly more hostile to key components of Biden’s landmark law. The bill was passed after U.S. inflation had already peaked, but Pfluger suggested that the inflation reduction law’s renewable energy provisions contributed to the soaring prices that angered U.S. voters.
“The United States, like many other countries in the world, has experienced this incredible inflation,” he said. “We believe that lowering these costs has a lot to do with energy. In other words, it is possible to secure cheap and stable base load capacity. “If there are any parts of the IRA that are incompatible, we will look at that.”
Nonetheless, the delegation stopped short of advocating for a full repeal of Biden’s energy policy.
“If there is a part of the IRA that supports reducing energy costs and helping the American people and ensuring that our partners and allies have access to affordable, reliable energy, then I guarantee that that part will remain in place,” Pfluger said.
A key goal of this year’s COP is to advance an agreement on international climate support. In it, rich countries agree to transfer hundreds of billions, even trillions, of dollars to poorer parts of the world to accelerate the energy transition and make them more climate resilient. It fueled the disaster. Trump has proposed zeroing out these kinds of pledges during his first term as president. When Grist asked Pfluger whether he would support Trump’s new call to cut off this foreign aid, Pfluger didn’t rule it out. He also seemed to suggest that future climate aid could be used to support Republican energy priorities.
“When it comes to climate finance, if something is inconsistent or does not support lowering energy costs while reducing emissions, I can assure you that this Congress will look at that,” he said.
After the press conference, Pfluger and his colleagues were mobbed by reporters from several countries before leaving for an event touting support for nuclear power. The U.S. State Department, which is coordinating the country’s delegation in Baku, did not respond to a request for comment on the lawmakers’ statement before its release.
