While the effects of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria are being felt on the southern coast of the United States, five prominent Republicans visited Syracuse University to discuss market-based solutions to fight climate change.

More than 50 people attended the event, which was open to the public. The majority of the attendees were SU graduate students, alumni and local community members. The political figures on Thursday night’s panel in Dineen Hall talked about climate change from a conservative perspective.

The panelists included former Congressman Richard Hanna of New York; former U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis of South Carolina; Joe Pinion, chairman of the Conservative Color Coalition; and Pete Wilcoxen, a professor of public administration and international affairs in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The discussion was moderated by Steve Kimatian, a longtime media executive and city politician.

Not everyone in attendance identified as conservative though. Kyle Perkins, an employee at an energy company in downtown Syracuse, is one example. Despite not being conservative, he said compromise across political parties would be key in getting climate legislation passed.

“Something can’t be sustainable unless it’s economically sustainable, so both sides of the aisle need to work together in order to make some sort of plan that’s actually going to work,” Perkins said.

Perkins’ proposal for moderate cooperation was a key focus point of the evening, as former Congressman Hanna was quick to point out the negative effects of gerrymandering, which he claimed is “messing up our democracy.” He credited this as the reason for the difficulty of Republicans to support climate change, saying that it pressured politicians on both sides of the aisle to stay within their party’s lines.

“You’re anti-gay, anti-women’s health care, you’re not pro-choice, you’re against climate change, you’re against government programs of all sorts whatever they may be,” Hanna said. “If that’s the orthodoxy and they fall into line with today’s gerrymandering, it has made it pretty easy to get re-elected.”

Hanna prided himself on being a supporter of all the social programs listed above.

Bob Inglis, who lost his re-election bid in 2010 to a Tea Party candidate, was blasted during his 2010 re-election campaign for embracing climate change as a legitimate issue.

“They called me the Al Gore of the Republican Party,” he said during the panel.

However, Inglis said climate change has been taken more seriously in recent years, pointing out that he got “tossed out” of office at the peak of the economic recession, when constituents were focused on the immediate recovery of the stock market.

Now, people have more time to focus on the futuristic idea of climate change — no matter how near that may be, Inglis said.

“I think that we’re all being taught about climate change with the hurricanes, the wildfires, the temperatures, the drought,” Inglis said. “These things are teaching us (that) when you experience the floods of Houston, you’re not so inclined to laugh at a joke about climate change anymore.”

Inglis pointed out that Mitt Romney used climate change as a laugh line during his 2012 Republican National Convention speech.

Professor Wilcoxen of the Maxwell School was the first to come out during the panel with a market-based proposal to fight climate change. He cited a carbon tax as a good alternative to regulations on business. Wilcoxen said this would provide incentives for companies, which can avoid this tax by using more sustainable fuels.

Wilcoxen emphasized that revenue for the government would not be a main reason for creating the carbon tax. In fact, he proposed the revenue gained from the tax would go back into the pockets of citizens either by negating other taxes or as a direct check.

Other panelists proposed competing free market solutions, including Inglis who emphasized that as a leader in world trade, the U.S. should use bold leadership in climate solutions instead of waiting for other countries to catch up.

“We need to say we’re acting, we’re leading, follow if you want to,” Inglis said.

This panel is the first of 10 that the organization RepublicEN will be hosting around the area over the course of 10 weeks. With the goal of spreading their ideas and market-based solutions, the panel said they hope to put climate change into the minds of local communities.

“The force that’s gonna change the direction of this conversation is going to come from the outside,” Hanna said.

When one member of a conservative student group at SUNY Oswego asked what he could do to help spread their ideas within his community, Pinion, the chairman of the Conservative Color Coalition, made his point clear to the group member.

“Don’t be afraid to sit at the middle table in the cafeteria. It’s OK to form your own contingent of individuals who aren’t going to be in lock-step with the status quo,” Pinion said. “Find your political identity for yourself. The arc of history says that this will work out.”

Published on September 22, 2017 at 3:54 pm

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326