New US House speaker champions fossil fuels and dismisses climate concerns

WASHINGTON – US Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana, the newly elected House Speaker, has questioned climate science, opposed clean energy and received more campaign contributions from oil and gas companies than from any other industry last year.

Even as other Republican lawmakers increasingly accept the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity is dangerously heating the planet, the unanimous election of Mr Johnson on Wednesday suggests that his views may not be out of step with the rest of his party.

Indeed, surveys show that climate science has been politicised in the United States to an extent not experienced in most other countries.

A Pew Research Centre survey released Tuesday found that a vast majority of Democrats polled – 85 per cent – said that climate change is an extremely or very serious problem, while 47 per cent of Republicans viewed climate change as not too serious or not a problem at all.

“It should concern us all that someone with such extreme views and so beholden to the fossil fuel industry has such power and influence during a time when bold action is more critical than ever,” said Mr Ben Jealous, the executive director of the Sierra Club, an environment group.

Mr Johnson, whose district includes Shreveport, a former oil town that has diversified over the past decade, was first elected to Congress in 2016. A former constitutional lawyer, he does not sit on committees that decide the fate of major energy issues.

But he has consistently voted against dozens of climate Bills and amendments, opposing legislation that would require companies to disclose their risks from climate change and Bills that would reduce leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas wells. He has voted for measures that would cut funding to the Environmental Protection Agency.

At a town hall in 2017, Mr Johnson said: “The climate is changing, but the question is, is it being caused by natural cycles over the span of the earth’s history? Or is it changing because we drive SUVs? I don’t believe in the latter. I don’t think that’s the primary driver.”

After Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York and Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts unsuccessfully filed Green New Deal legislation in 2019 to aggressively cut emissions, move the country toward 100 per cent renewable energy and address a host of social issues, Mr Johnson hit back.

Then the chair of the Republican Study Committee, Mr Johnson issued a 13-page paper dubbing the climate plan “A Greedy New Steal.” He called the Democrats’ plan “a thinly veiled attempt to implement the policies that would usher in a new socialist society in America”.

Last year, when Democrats passed climate legislation that provided for investing US$370 billion (S$507 billion) in clean energy, Mr Johnson criticised it as a plan to send taxpayer dollars to “green energy slush funds”. Much of the private investment stemming from that law is taking hold in Republican-led states.

Since 2018, Mr Johnson has received about US$240,000 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry, according to Open Secrets, a campaign finance watchdog.

The League of Conservation Voters, an environmental group, has given Mr Johnson a lifetime score of 2 per cent. The American Energy Alliance, which represents fossil fuel interests, gave him a score of 100 per cent in 2022.

The scores, however, are nearly identical to those earned by Mr Johnson’s predecessor as Speaker, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, who did acknowledge climate science.

But Mr McCarthy “made sure that the Maga (Make America Great Again movement) House Republicans acted at Big Oil’s behest day in and day out, and it is clear that Mr Johnson will be just as extreme if not worse,” said Ms Tiernan Sittenfeld, the senior vice-president of government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters.

This year is shaping up to be the hottest year on record. The United States has experienced US$23 billion worth of disasters resulting from extreme weather linked to climate change in 2023, a record for this point in the year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Ms Heather Reams, president of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, a group that works with Republicans on clean energy, said she expected that Mr Johnson would try to repeal the climate law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act.

But, she said: “The more embedded these tax incentives become, particularly in the red districts, I think it will be hard to repeal.”

Republican Representative John Curtis of Utah, who leads a conservative climate change caucus, has spoken with Mr Johnson about the issue, Mr Curtis’ spokesman, Mr Adam Cloch, said.

“We look forward to working with him on our priorities,” Mr Cloch said. “Conservatives are at the climate table.”

The Independent Petroleum Association of America applauded Mr Johnson’s election, saying that as a Louisiana representative, he “knows the importance of both Haynesville shale and Gulf of Mexico production to America’s energy future”.

Mr Steven Milloy, a prominent climate denialist, called Mr Johnson “a quantum leap improvement” over Mr McCarthy. NYTIMES