Another Sane Conservative on Climate

Nancy Stiles is the new Republican State Senator from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  She believes in low government spending and decentralization.  Libertarians like her.

But importantly, she seems to have not been infected with the climate denial crazy of many in her party.  While Republicans in the state Assembly have voted to have New Hampshire secede from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the northeast’s cap-and-trade plan, Stiles is fighting in the state Senate to keep it.  Stiles doesn’t think RGGI is perfect, and seems to want to adjust the way it makes grants from permit revenues, but that’s just common-sense policymaking.

Possibly Stiles sees the benefit in RGGI because she represents the New Hampshire seacoast, which of course will the state’s region most directly affected by rising sea levels.  Or perhaps she likes the benefits that RGGI is already bringing to the state: the majority of project revenues get invested in energy efficiency, which reduces everyone’s costs.

In any event, it’s nice to see someone on the Republican side looking at facts for once: the Assembly GOP resolution seceding from RGGI cited “shaky climate science.”  Presumably, they are also questioning the shape of the earth.

climate denial, Nancy Stiles, New Hampshire, Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative