Originally published in E&E News
“But platforms are generally ignored by the party anyway, and Heather Reams, executive director of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, who added that its strength does not depend on “how many times climate change is addressed.”
For Republicans, Reams said, climate messaging is not necessarily a matter of talking about the issue as many times as possible at the convention.
Reams added that her organization’s polling has shown that Republicans often recoil from the words “climate change,” even when they support the underlying policies to address it.
“They don’t want their president to say ‘climate change,'” Reams said. “They want their president to say ‘protecting the environment, expanding our energy sources, protecting our jobs, increasing manufacturing at home.'”
Republicans have also found red meat for their base in Democratic ideas about climate change, namely the Green New Deal, which they have used to label any number of policies — including tax incentives for renewable energy — over the last two years.”