Two weeks ago, Mike Pence joined the rest of the right wing dark money disinfo ecosystem in attacking ESG standards, and yet another group of conservatives pretended that they're serious about climate change, while remaining steadfast in their support for fake solutions and fossil fuels and opposition to renewables like wind and solar.
None of that has changed, but apparently BloombergGov decided it was time for the regular media greenwashing of the GOP, and had reporter Emily Wilkins write about how the "GOP aims to revamp environment messaging by embracing renewables."
But here's the thing: at no point in the thousand-word story does Wilkins suggest they're actually embracing renewables. "Republicans intend to put forward proposals" Wilkins reports, "that support renewable energy and environmental protections as part of their overall approach," just like we intend to lose 30 pounds by beach season, by incorporating a salad into our overall approach of a cheeseburger and fries for lunch, a pint of ice cream as a bedtime snack, and a full root beer float with three scoops every 45 minutes throughout the day.
"We've got to do a better job messaging," Wilkins quotes Garret Graves saying, as though his message isn't that it's good that fossil fuel infrastructure and sea level rise are consuming a football field's worth of land in his state every single hour and poisoning his constituents.
Wilkins fails to mention that Graves' biggest campaign donor is the oil and gas industry, which may make it tricky for him to take real climate action when the continuation of the oil and gas industry is incompatible with a livable climate, per the IPCC.
Wilkins also fails to mention that the industry is heavily funding all the other Republicans quoted claiming that they've simply failed to talk about climate the right way, and there's only a scant brief quote from one Democratic congressperson, California Rep. Jared Huffman, to suggest that perhaps "at the end of the day, there's no substantive change at all."
And indeed, Wilkins offers zero evidence of anything other than intentions to have a plan to spread disinformation around so that voters don't recognize that the GOP's refusal to act on climate is related to aforementioned oil and gas funding they receive. (In the past, Graves has admitted that he just wants the GOP to "double down" on their fossil fuel support.)
While they've made a lot of progress convincing reporters that they intend to plan to start messaging differently on the issue, there are "limits on how far Republicans say they can go on the issue" SC Rep. Nancy Mace told Wilkins, because in "conversations with Republicans," climate change is "sort of a dirty word."
That said, Wilkins does offer evidence of something, just not that the conversion falsely implied by the headline actually took place. Quite the opposite: "In 2020, all 24 House candidates backed by the American Conservation Coalition were successful, including some who flipped swing seats." Mace, for example, flipped her seat, winning over incumbent Democratic congressman Joe Cunnigham.
While there's been zero evidence that ACC, the group that falsely calls itself a coalition to exaggerate its influence as it greenwashes the GOP, is actually changing GOP policy on climate, it apparently is helping Republicans flip seats, and thereby making it even harder to build the climate-serious majority necessary to pass policy.
