The Conservative Climate Caucus announced Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, M.D. (IA-01) as the new Chair. Founder and former Chair John Curtis (UT-03), who served in the position from the Caucus founding in June 2021, has transitioned to an advisory role as Chair Emeritus.
“I am grateful for Rep. Curtis’ leadership on founding and growing the Conservative Climate Caucus,” said Rep. Miller-Meeks. “The U.S. is a leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, all while increasing energy production. As I assume leadership of the Caucus, I look forward to continuing to promote an any-of-the-above strategy for ensuring U.S. energy dominance with a globally competitive economy, while simultaneously reducing emissions for a cleaner, healthier planet.”
Please see excerpts below from the E&E News interview with Rep. Miller-Meeks on the Conservative Climate Caucus.
Iowa Republican taking helm of Conservative Climate Caucus
By Emma Dumain
E&E News
April 1, 2024
Rep. John Curtis is turning over leadership of the House Conservative Climate Caucus to Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, an Iowa Republican who will only be the second lawmaker to chair the 85-member organization.
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Miller-Meeks — who was elected to the House in 2020 and hails from a state where renewables make up nearly two-thirds of Iowa’s energy generation — officially took the top spot on the caucus April 1. She’d been a vice chair of the Conservative Climate Caucus since January 2023.
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Miller-Meeks, in an interview with E&E News, disputed the characterization that Republicans aren’t talking about U.S. energy independence in the context of emissions reduction goals.
“For people who are watching the Energy and Commerce Committee hearings on these issues, they would hear Republicans talk a lot about how the U.S. has reduced emissions and, primarily through the shale and fracking innovations that have come about, how that’s helped us to lower emissions while also delivering affordable energy to individuals,” said Miller-Meeks, a member of that panel.
“[Republicans] know the climate is changing,” she continued, “but we want to focus on reducing emissions rather than focus on the energy source, but also how we can reduce emissions through renewables — the whole gamut of renewables, rather than forcing mandates … Republicans are both wanting to have a growing economy that competes globally, which we know energy is a part of, while also reducing emissions and helping to promote a cleaner, healthier planet.”
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“All of us have an understanding that we want the caucus to continue to expand both in membership … and to start doing more trips, start looking at ways that we can look at policy, hold briefings and roundtables as some of the other caucuses do in order to promote all of the great innovation and leadership that the United States has had in both energy and in reducing emissions,” she said.
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Read the rest of the article here.
