David Roberts of Vox Energy and Environment says that Katie Couric recently interviewed Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, and the subject of climate change came up. They discussed it for over four minutes, likely marking the longest any national GOP political figure has spent talking about climate change in the past five years.
Conservatives are delighted with the Fiorina performance. Thrilled. Pumped. They think she crushed Couric and showed how to outwit liberals on climate change. In fact, Fiorina comments are a farrago of falsehoods and red herrings, a derp different in character from science-denial derp, but no less derpy. The tightrope act of finding a moderate Republican message on climate change
The key to a moderate Republican position on climate change is that it has to neutralize the science debate, which party leaders have concluded is not favorable terrain. The Tea Party base remains staunchly wedded to science denialism, but everywhere else on the political spectrum (including among other Republicans), majorities now agree that climate change is a problem that warrants serious solutions. Denialism, concentrated in conservative white men, has become a liability among young people, Hispanics, and other demographics Republicans badly need to court.
So the trick for the aspiring Republican moderate is to acknowledge the scientific consensus on climate change while maintaining opposition to any policy that might penalize fossil fuels or advantage renewable energy.
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