The ‘Eco-Right’ Is Growing. Will Bipartisanship Follow?

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When John Szoka was first elected to the North Carolina legislature in 2013, he thought solar energy was “a bunch of garbage.” Advocates from left-leaning environmental groups who wanted to save the polar bears did nothing to sway him. Then he spoke to a Republican lobbyist. She never mentioned environmental calamities or polar bears. Instead, she talked about the benefits for his constituents of low-cost renewable energy.

“Make no mistake. I’m a conservative Republican. I like guns. I’m a retired infantry guy,” Szoka says. “But I really did become a champion for clean energy.”

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Today Szoka is CEO of the eight-year-old Conservative Energy Network, a national network of state groups that advocates for wind, solar, and geothermal energy as well as improvements to the power grid. The group frames its work around energy independence, reduced regulation, market-based solutions, and national security — all conservative priorities.

The network is one of a number of right-of-center organizations that have sprung up in the past five to 10 years and found success persuading conservatives of the benefits of lower cost, renewable energy. With the Inflation Reduction Act and its subsidies of renewables under attack from the Trump administration, these groups are working to ensure that conservative members of Congress and their constituents understand the law’s economic benefits. In the long run, some climate advocates see these new organizations as critical to a more powerful and effective movement. Young conservatives, in particular, are very engaged with climate change and want to see action.

“We really do need everyone in this fight,” says Anne Jellema, executive director of the left-leaning 350.org, a nearly 20-year-old international climate organization. “We really welcome newcomers, because there is no such thing as a perfect climate activist.

Explore ideas, conversations, and solutions for a fractured country.

The field of conservative organizations is tiny and poorly funded compared to the big green groups that are the traditional climate warriors — they receive less than 1 percent of all climate funding, according to one analysis. A few major climate funders including the William & Flora Hewlett, MacArthur, and Charles Stewart Mott foundations have supported some of these groups for years, but more grant makers and donors are showing interest, says Andrea Yodsampa, CEO of Deploy/US, a right-of-center environmental regrantor.

“That conversation within environmental philanthropy about the importance of funding the eco-right field was already accelerating before the election, and of course the election even propelled it further,” Yodsampa says, noting Republican control of Congress and the White House. “The opportunity and need just currently far exceed the funding.”

‘That’s a Win’

For decades the Republican Party lacked any strategy on climate, often denied the issue was real, and blocked Democratic legislation. As a result, left-leaning groups like the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council and others dominate the debate.

At the federal level, Democrats have pushed nearly all the successful legislation. The Inflation Reduction Act, the largest-ever piece of climate legislation, was approved without a single GOP vote, and Republicans have voted to repeal it more than 50 times. The Trump administration has stripped climate change language and data from federal websites, fired climate scientists, and derailed the government’s climate assessment by firing hundreds of contributors.

Climate change has become such a polarizing issue that any message from the left turns off conservatives, says Szoka. Even the term “climate change” can end a conversation. But when right-of-center groups emphasize conservative viewpoints and priorities, they find interest.

“Low-cost energy. Who doesn’t like that? Restoring American energy leadership? What Republican doesn’t like that? Free-market competition, consumer choice, defending property rights,” Szoka says. “If you can get to the same goal that you want without using trigger words that turn people off, that’s a win”

Grace Church

The Rev. Jessica Moerman is an evangelical pastor and climate scientist. As the CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Network, she discovered that conservative evangelical Christians are genuinely interested in climate change. Her group helps church leaders educate their congregations and get tax credits for solar panels and other green energy initiatives.

“One thing that we hear so often from our fellow evangelicals is they do have a hunger to know the truth on this, to have a real understanding of what’s going on about climate. But they’re not sure who to trust,” she says. “That definitely makes our job harder, but it presents an opportunity.”

Moerman often speaks about the biblical mandate to care for nature — God’s creation. To make often overwhelming, abstract issues concrete, she points to how extreme heat and weather or particulate air pollution affects the health of children, the elderly, or those with medical conditions. Pastors, she says, get excited to think about solutions. “Many evangelicals have deeply held pro-life values of preserving life and defending life at every stage.”

Jobs and the economy are also key topics for conservatives, particularly lawmakers, says Heather Reams, president of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Forum and its 501(c)(4). New factories that make batteries, electric vehicles, solar panels, and wind turbines have fueled economic growth in many red parts of the country. “The more investments that are in their communities for jobs and other things, the easier this becomes,“ says Reams, who chairs the Conservative Climate Foundation. “It becomes less about climate and more about economic growth, energy independence, national security, health, and consumer price.”

There are myriad ways to discuss climate change because it affects nearly every aspect of life, says Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. He shared the story of a pregnant pro-life activist who was surprised to learn about the health risks posed by high mercury levels in fish. Much of the mercury in the food chain comes from burning coal.

“She didn’t have to change who she was, she didn’t have to become a Democrat, she didn’t have to change her underlying religious views,” he says. “But she became a clean energy advocate.”

“You have to start where people are,” says 350.org’s Jellema. “That doesn’t mean you stop where they are. You try to take them on a journey.”

Net Result: De-Polarization?

Many of these groups hope recruiting more conservatives to the cause will make it stronger. “Bipartisanship will create durable policy. So you’re not going to see this pendulum swing from side to side to side depending on an election every two to four years,” says Reams. “It’s not a red or blue issue; it’s a red, white, and blue issue.”

Courtesy Heather Reams

Deploy/US, which funds many right-of-center climate groups, is itself a bipartisan organization, with staff and board members from the political right and left. Yodsampa is convinced that climate groups on the right are creating more bipartisan communication and collaboration, if sometimes out of public view. “It creates relationships and connective tissue and experience and collaborative muscle that carries over to other issue areas,” she says. “I have heard directly from policy makers on both sides of the political spectrum that there is often behind-the-scenes collaboration on climate that does translate into stronger bipartisan working relationships and broader collaborative possibilities.” One example: the congressional Climate Solutions Caucus, which has 28 House members from each party.

Despite the talk of bipartisanship, there are clear areas of disagreement between conservative groups and mainstream climate organizations. For example, many right-of-center groups are open to the use of natural gas to decrease emissions, and they advocate for increases in nuclear energy — positions most progressives oppose. Several left-leaning groups wouldn’t talk with the Chronicle about conservative climate advocates. NRDC declined to comment for this story, and the Sierra Club, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Mott Foundation did not respond to requests for interviews.

Still, some climate stalwarts argue that a big tent is important. Effective climate solutions require openness, collaboration, and new ways to engage more people, Carrie Doyle, an officer with the Hewlett Foundation’s environment program, wrote in an email. Hewlett supports the Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions Forum. The MacArthur Foundation also backs efforts on the left and right. . “I have always believed that engagement is necessary and that the only way we are going to get to lasting solutions is actually by engaging,” says Jorgen Thomsen, the grant maker’s climate director. “We need to continue to try.”

Some within the movement even hope that supporting right-of-center climate groups can model even broader political depolarization. Johannes Ackva, climate research lead at the Founders Pledge, a grant maker that supports right-of-center climate groups among other causes, says competition for the best approaches from the right and the left can help bring people together to focus on solutions.

There is not much time left to argue, says 350.org’s Jellema. “Over the next few years, we in the climate movement do need to get over some of these ideological differences that are holding us back, because this is a moment that really does call for radical collaboration,” she says, adding that sometimes the left is most comfortable collaborating with people they agree with.

‘A New Political Script’

The future for right-of-center climate action holds promise. Young conservatives are much more engaged with the issue than older conservatives, and they may be more amenable to working across political differences. Polling from Yale’s climate communication program found that only 43 percent of Republicans over 55 think climate change is real compared to 57 percent of those between 18 and 34. Younger Republicans are similarly more inclined to believe that humans cause climate change.

American Conservative Coalition

Stephen Perkins, acting CEO of the American Conservation Coalition, which is active on college campuses, says young Republicans view climate change as a serious issue. The group often works with local members to help with community tree plantings and other service activities where conversations about these issues flow more easily.

“You can’t be much of an enemy when you are bonding under these conditions,” he says.

For young Republicans, it is no longer credible to avoid discussing climate change given the growing evidence of the threat, says Alex Posner, co-founder of the Climate Solutions Fund, a right-of-center group working on college campuses. “Young people come with new ideas, new possibilities, and an opportunity to write a new political script,” he says. “Youth movements have historically laid claim to the counterculture. And in a funny way, by working together in a bipartisan fashion, we are continuing that tradition because today’s political culture is one of bitter partisanship.”

Trump and the New Activists

It’s an open question how much influence center-right groups will have in the short term. The Trump administration is hostile to climate change efforts and champions increased drilling for fossil fuels and coal extraction.

In late May, House Republicans voted to rollback the vast majority of the IRA’s support for renweable energy initiatives. The tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of billions in investments riding on the law were not enough to sway conservative lawmakers to defy the president. In a statement, Reams said she is hopeful that the Senate would make changes to the bill, warning that curtailing the IRA would cost jobs and hurt local economies.

Nonprofits of all kinds have used the new tax credit system created by the law to help pay for solar panels and other green projects. “It’s a real example of commonsense smart policy that has just made it easier than ever for both houses of worship and households do clean energy upgrades,” says Moerman with the Evangelical Environmental Network.

Climate groups on the right point to some accomplishments during the first Trump administration, including the Energy Act of 2020, which directed the Department of Energy to prioritize development of carbon capture, advanced nuclear, and geothermal technologies and the Great American Outdoors Act, which funded infrastructure on federal lands and conservation efforts. And they say that they share some of the same goals around energy independence, national security, and reforming the permitting process which has held up many large scale renewable energy projects.

Even after nearly all House Republicans voted for the budget bill that dismantled key provisions of the IRA, Yodsampa at Deploy/US says opportunities for bipartisan action on clean energy remain. “Some eco-right groups support key bipartisan provisions inside the IRA, and others are focused on policies they argue are even better for rapidly reducing emissions,” she says.

Others are finding more traction in right-leaning districts and states seeing real economic benefits from renewable energy projects. The MacArthur Foundation supports the Great Plains Institute, which has done bipartisan work in 21 states on renewable energy. “We’ve had setbacks before,” says Thomsen. “But even during the first Trump administration, there was still a lot of advancement of clean energy.”

The future may not be as bleak as many think. “Understandably, plenty of people are feeling flummoxed and powerless in our new political environment,” says Posner. “But the good news is, there really is abundant opportunity, with strategic investments, to chart a new course. This is a moment not to retreat; this is the moment to lean in. Now, as ever, the best way to predict the future is to create it.”

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