From: Douglas Grandt ans Subje oe Dear Senator Murkowski, As Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this is #8 of sixteen questions that you must ask the oil & gas industry Doug Grandt Putney, VT | AM SEEING RED*** House Republicans probably realize the path back to a majority means having a SERIOUS answer on climate.GOP Tiptoes Toward Climate Plans as Ocasio-Cortez Turns Up Heat Bloomberg / Ari Natter / April 11, 2019, 4:00 AM EDT / Bily/Bloom11 Apri Texas Senator John Cornyn, who once voted against a measure that said climate change was man-made, is now helping fellow Republicans craft legislation to combat global warming through “energy innovation.” “Coming up with lower emissions is a good thing,” Cornyn said in an interview. He’s not alone. With the exception of President Donald Trump, Republicans have largely gone from ignoring or expressing doubt about climate change to acknowledging the scientific consensus in the face of growing public alarm over deadly storms and wildfires, and pressure to come up with an alternative to progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal.” That's forced them to craft a policy response that doesn’t alienate supporters in the fossil-fuel industry or contradict their long-standing emphasis on increasing energy production. Some of those proposals may get an airing on Thursday when Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from oil-rich Alaska, convenes a hearing on “potential solutions to help address global climate change. “There is a remarkable shift going on,” said Alex Flint, the executive director of Alliance for Market Solutions, a conservative group that favors a tax on carbo he planet-warming gas. “There is a sincere effort by several Republicans to develop policy proposals to address climate change.”Among the ideas under discussion are clean-energy mandates and tax credits that promote the use of alternative power sources as well as spending on new energy technology and electric vehicles -- ideas that were shunned by the party just a few years ago. “It’s up to Republicans to say what we are for,” said Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander, who recently took to the Senate floor to propose a New Manhattan Project for Clean Energy -- a nod to the massive mobilization during World War II to build an atomic bomb. “Instead of ending a war, the goal of this New Manhattan Project will be to minimize the disruption on our lives and economies caused by climate change.” He proposes spending $6 billion a year on energy research and scoring huge advancements in nuclear power technology, electric vehicles and their batteries, as well as solar power, natural gas and carbon capture. And Alexander, who serves as a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he believed “almost all of it” could be achieved through Congress's regular spending bill process, such as through boosting funding for the Energy Department. “We are moving ahead,” Alexander said in an interview. Other Republicans are exploring mandates that require states to produce a certain percentage of electricity from sources such as renewables and nuclear power. In the case of one so-called clean energy standard being crafted as part of a larger package by West Virginia Representative David McKinley, carbon capture technologies would count as well. ‘Though largely unproven on an industrial scale, carbon capture aims to render coal climate-friendly by intercepting carbon dioxide emissions. “We've had an approach here in Washington for too long: Pay penalties first and then innovate later,” McKinley, a staunch advocate of his home state’s coal industry, said in an interview. “Why don’t we do the reverse? Innovate first and then once we do the innovation then we can set standards that are achievable.”