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\u201cIf there\u2019s a future for our environment, there has to be a center voice.”Getty Via Grist<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tGet your news from a source that\u2019s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally published by\u00a0Grist<\/a> and is reproduced here as part of the\u00a0Climate Desk<\/a>\u00a0collaboration.<\/p>\n In early July, the Bureau of Land Management quietly announced plans to trade away\u00a02 million acres<\/a>\u00a0of public land along Alaska\u2019s Dalton Highway. The immense stretch of boreal forest totters into tundra, an area almost three times the size of Rhode Island. It will be handed over to the state, likely opening the door to mining and development.<\/p>\n The exchange is one of many moves by the Trump administration to privatize public land and\u00a0roll back climate and environmental protections<\/a>. In just six months the White House has announced plans to\u00a0shrink iconic national monuments<\/a>, reopened\u00a0oil and gas leasing<\/a>, rescinded watershed protections to\u00a0pave the way<\/a>\u00a0for mining, and opened\u00a0millions of acres of national forest<\/a>\u00a0to logging. These decisions have been joined by a broader dismantling of climate and environmental regulations, including efforts to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s\u00a0ability to curb\u00a0greenhouse gases<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even as he continued upending how the country\u2019s natural resources are managed, President Donald Trump signed an executive order vowing to \u201cMake America Beautiful Again<\/a>.\u201d His directive, issued July 3, called for balancing environmental stewardship with economic growth, and established a commission to \u201cadvise and assist the President regarding how best to responsibly conserve America\u2019s national treasures and natural resources.\u201d It is unclear what policies this commission might develop or how much authority it will hold.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMost conservatives understand the issue\u2026They\u2019re just tired of the moralism and want solutions aligned with their values.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Benji Backer, a 27-year-old conservative conservationist, hopes to influence some of those details. He has built a national platform around the idea that caring about the environment and climate change is a bipartisan issue. After founding the nonprofit\u00a0American Conservation Coalition<\/a>, or ACC, eight years ago, Backer launched\u00a0Nature is Nonpartisan<\/a>\u00a0this spring. While ACC was \u201cstrictly meant for conservatives, by conservatives,\u201d he sees the new organization transcending partisanship, pursuing environmental action regardless of who holds political power. \u201cIf there\u2019s a future for our environment, there has to be a center voice that\u2019s willing to call balls and strikes, and not care about who they could potentially piss off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The group\u2019s board includes notable conservative figures like David Bernhardt,\u00a0<\/strong>a lawyer who served as interior secretary during the first Trump administration and was\u00a0investigated<\/a>\u00a0for failing to recuse himself from decisions affecting Halliburton, a former client. He now consults for\u00a0oil and gas firms<\/a>. Other advisers include Chris LaCivita Jr., a political consultant and\u00a0son<\/a>\u00a0of the president\u2019s 2024 campaign manager, as well as more centrist figures like Van Jones and David Livingston.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shortly after the president took office Backer delivered a draft order to the White House containing a list of policy goals he\u2019d developed in consultation with groups like Ducks Unlimited and the National Wildlife Federation. These included goals like restoring forests and combating plastic pollution. Though the final order, announced at the Iowa State Fair, does not explicitly mention climate change, Backer says it helps the EPA administrator and interior secretary \u201cmove in the right direction.\u201d Based on his conversations with them, Backer says, \u201cThey\u2019ve been focused on cutting. It\u2019s my hope that they start building soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Though the Trump administration\u2019s revisions substantially altered the order, Backer was quick to celebrate it. \u201cWorking with the White House on this EO for the past six months has been an honor,\u201d he\u00a0posted<\/a>\u00a0on X shortly after Trump signed the document. \u201cThis is an incredible step that will leave a positive mark for our environment for generations!\u201d<\/p>\n Backer\u2019s optimistic tone marks a shift from\u00a0a letter he co-signed<\/a>\u00a0with nine other Republican leaders in December, stating that Trump\u2019s win \u201craises serious questions about both the durability of recent climate gains and the prospects for future progress.\u201d At that time, the coalition statement focused on the election of climate-engaged Republicans like representatives John Curtis and Marianette Miller-Meeks, both members of the Conservative Climate Caucus. Like many liberal organizations preparing for a Trump administration, the letter also discussed shifting focus to state and local climate action.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lobbying efforts by the American Conservation Coalition and its advocacy arm have met mixed success with the Trump administration. They appear to have\u00a0spent $2.65 million<\/a>\u00a0trying to preserve key parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, particularly clean energy tax credits. \u201cThe tax credits empower the private sector to invest in clean, reliable energy,\u201d Danielle Franz, ACC\u2019s chief executive officer, told Grist. \u201cIt\u2019s important to use our resources to reward innovation, and to have those free market or market-based incentives.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to watch what [Republicans] are doing, not just what they\u2019re saying,\u201d says former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman. The gap \u201cis pretty stark.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The budget bill debate also demonstrated how effective conservative voices can be in shaping environmental policy. When Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee proposed requiring the\u00a0sale<\/a>\u00a0of millions of acres of federal land, it sparked swift and broad backlash, including from hunters, anglers, and right-leaning\u00a0influencers like Joe Rogan<\/a>. After widespread\u00a0conservative criticism<\/a>, Lee scaled back the bill, then withdrew it\u2014underscoring the significant influence GOP conservation groups like ACC can have in determining environmental policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was, Backer says, \u201ca perfect example of what is possible. It basically just allowed us to go out there and show that millions of Americans are willing to stand together for the same environmental outcome.\u201d He hopes to build on that momentum with practical goals: Nature Is Nonpartisan is developing a short list of priorities he believes are politically feasible, including providing more funding for easing water pollution, reforming the Endangered Species Act, and tackling the backlog of maintenance in America\u2019s 63 national parks. (His list made no mention of climate change.) To garner support, Backer recently organized a coalition meeting of conservation groups, including right-leaning organizations like American Forests and Safari Club International, as well as more liberal conservation groups like the Nature Conservancy.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s part of a broader effort to tap into what he and others see as a growing awareness among conservatives. As Franz puts it, if you asked most conservatives if \u201cclimate change is real, they would say yes.\u201d She points out conservation has deep roots in the Republican Party, from Teddy Roosevelt championing the creation of national parks to Ronald Reagan\u00a0approving<\/a>\u00a0the Montreal Protocol to address the ozone hole.\u00a0<\/p>\n She added that the document Grist obtained that outlines the lobbying effort was a \u201cleaked, outdated draft that was never finalized or published,\u201d and \u201cappears to conflate\u201d ACC and its advocacy group\u2019s work. Those efforts ultimately failed: The reconciliation bill made significant cuts to clean energy policy, effectively\u00a0halting<\/a>\u00a0federal incentives for wind, solar, and other renewable energy projects. The bill did retain some support for nuclear and geothermal power. Franz declined to criticize the decision or discuss specific energy policies, saying \u201cin any bill you\u2019re going to have give and take.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Public opinion has shifted sharply since then, however. According to a 2024 Gallup poll, only\u00a011 percent<\/a>\u00a0of Republicans consider climate change a great personal threat, down from 29 percent a decade ago. A\u00a0Pew Research Center survey<\/a>\u00a0reveals that while a majority of Republicans support concrete policies like expanding solar farms and joining international climate agreements, only 12 percent say climate change should be a top national priority\u2014underscoring how political polarization shapes broader attitudes. Though there may be pragmatic support for specific policies, Republicans still consistently prioritize consumer costs, and fossil fuels over renewable energy. \u201cMost conservatives understand the issue,\u201d Franz says. \u201cThey\u2019re just tired of the moralism and want solutions aligned with their values.\u201d<\/p>\n In the past, ACC has advocated for streamlining permitting and boosting nuclear energy, promoting an \u201call\u2011of\u2011the\u2011above<\/a>\u201d strategy that includes renewables. Franz says ACC is happy with Trump\u2019s \u201cenergy abundance\u201d strategy, arguing that traditional energy produced in the United States has \u201ca net reduction for global emissions\u201d because \u201cAmerican-made fossil fuels\u00a0are cleaner<\/a>\u00a0than some other countries.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The data tell a different story. The International Energy Agency has been\u00a0unequivocal<\/a>: To stay within global climate goals, no new fossil fuel development can move forward. Studies show US\u00a0methane\u00a0emissions are\u00a0severely undercounted<\/a>, especially from shale gas fields, and claims of American fossil fuels being cleaner obscure the urgent need to shift away from them altogether. \u201cLook, I\u2019m not here to defend what Trump\u2019s done on the environment over the last six months,\u201d Backer said. \u201cThis is not a black-or-white thing. This is a four-year administration, and we\u2019re trying to shift them in the direction towards conservation as much as we possibly can.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But hoping for a gradual course correction is at odds with the urgency of the crisis and the need for swift action, said Christine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey who led the EPA under President George W. Bush. She is upset by the Trump administration\u2019s dismantling of that agency, saying the president \u201chas no respect for science.\u201d<\/p>\n In the absence of climate leadership from Washington, Whitman said states will have to step up with their own agreements, like the\u00a0Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative<\/a>, a coalition of 11 eastern states that aims to limit and reduce emissions from the power sector. Although each of those states is currently led by a Democrat, several of them have had Republican governors since the coalition\u2019s inception in 2005. \u201cThere are Republicans that really care about the environment and are doing work,\u201d Whitman said. But while she agrees bipartisan advocacy is essential, she says there\u2019s a clear disconnect between the rhetoric in Make America Beautiful Again and the administration\u2019s policies. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to watch what they\u2019re doing, not just what they\u2019re saying,\u201d she added. The gap, she said, \u201cis pretty stark.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Franz is optimistic about building conservative consensus around a sustainable future. \u201cOur message to conservatives is that this country is worth protecting,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n In its first six months, the Trump administration has\u00a0aggressively expanded oil and gas leasing<\/a>, rolled back\u00a0critical environmental regulations<\/a>, and\u00a0weakened methane emissions<\/a>, reversing\u00a0previous conservation protections<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0US progress<\/a>\u00a0on global climate commitments. Asked about these policies, Franz said, \u201cI think oftentimes these pieces want to relitigate and relitigate and relitigate the past, instead of talking about the future that conservatives see.\u201d<\/p>\n Franz and Backer see themselves as guardians of a tradition that protects a natural heritage alongside economic freedom. They don\u2019t see a gulf between a livable future and the reality unfolding in Washington\u2014a White House that praises abundance while leasing away the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; an administration that talks about stewardship while gutting the laws that made it possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n Franz recently became a parent, an experience that\u2019s deepened her commitment to her work. She wants her 4-month-old son to grow up seeing the north woods of Minnesota the way she did\u2014deer tracks in the snow, the bite of a November wind, the smell of rifle oil. Franz talks about caring about outcomes, not performative belief tests, how conservatives are tired of virtue signaling, and focusing on solutions. She doesn\u2019t see a tension between supporting oil and gas and promoting conservation at the same time. \u201cIt assumes a binary choice between use and between care, and I think that we can do both.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether that\u2019s true is no longer just an ideological debate. It\u2019s a matter of time. As Franz says, \u201cIt\u2019s not really a question of, \u2018Do you believe in climate change?\u2019 anymore. It\u2019s more a question of, \u2018What do you want to do about it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\n
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\u201cOur message to conservatives is that this country is worth protecting,\u201d says Benji Backer.Grist\/Courtesy of Benji Backer<\/p>\n\n