Editing Republican Party (United States) (section)

==== Environmental policies ====
{{Main|Political positions of the Republican Party#Environmental policies}}
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| image1            = 2009- Pew survey - is climate change a major threat, by political party.svg
| caption1          = Democrats and Republicans have diverged on the seriousness of the threat posed by climate change, with Republicans' assessment remaining essentially unchanged over the past decade.<ref name=PewClimateChange_20230418>● {{cite web |title=54% of Americans view climate change as a major threat, but the partisan divide has grown |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/18/for-earth-day-key-facts-about-americans-views-of-climate-change-and-renewable-energy/sr_2023-04-18_climate_5/ |publisher=Pew Research Center |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230422182323/https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/18/for-earth-day-key-facts-about-americans-views-of-climate-change-and-renewable-energy/sr_2023-04-18_climate_5/ |archive-date=April 22, 2023 |date=April 18, 2023 |url-status=live }} ● Broader discussion by {{cite web |last1=Tyson |first1=Alec |last2=Funk |first2=Cary |last3=Kennedy |first3=Brian |title=What the data says about Americans' views of climate change |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/18/for-earth-day-key-facts-about-americans-views-of-climate-change-and-renewable-energy/ |publisher=Pew Research Center |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230512193458/https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/18/for-earth-day-key-facts-about-americans-views-of-climate-change-and-renewable-energy/ |archive-date=May 12, 2023 |date=April 18, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>
| image3            = 20220301 Opinions by political party - Climate change causation - Action for carbon neutral 2050 - Pew Research.svg
| caption3          = Opinion about human causation of climate change increased substantially with education among Democrats, but not among Republicans.<ref name=Pew_20220301/> Conversely, opinions favoring becoming carbon neutral declined substantially with age among Republicans, but not among Democrats.<ref name=Pew_20220301>{{cite web |last1=Tyson |first1=Alec |last2=Funk |first2=Cary |last3=Kennedy |first3=Brian |title=Americans Largely Favor U.S. Taking Steps To Become Carbon Neutral by 2050 / Appendix (Detailed charts and tables) |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/03/01/carbon-neutral-2050-appendix/ |website=Pew Research |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220418220503/https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/03/01/carbon-neutral-2050-appendix/ |archive-date=April 18, 2022 |date=March 1, 2022 |url-status=live }}</ref>
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Historically, [[Progressivism in the United States|progressive]] leaders in the Republican Party supported [[environmental protection]]. Republican President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] was a prominent [[Conservation (ethic)|conservationist]] whose policies eventually led to the creation of the [[National Park Service]].<ref name=Filler>{{cite web|author=Filler, Daniel|title=Theodore Roosevelt: Conservation as the Guardian of Democracy|url=http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~thomast/essays/filler/filler.html|access-date=November 9, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030802175908/http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~thomast/essays/filler/filler.html|archive-date=August 2, 2003}}</ref> While Republican President [[Richard Nixon]] was not an environmentalist, he signed legislation to create the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency|Environmental Protection Agency]] in 1970 and had a comprehensive environmental program.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ewert|first=Sara Dant|date=July 3, 2003|title=Environmental Politics in the Nixon Era|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/44406|journal=Journal of Policy History|volume=15|issue=3|pages=345–348|issn=1528-4190|doi=10.1353/jph.2003.0019|s2cid=153711962|access-date=June 3, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809131601/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/44406|archive-date=August 9, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> However, this position has changed since the 1980s and the administration of President [[Ronald Reagan]], who labeled environmental regulations a burden on the economy.<ref name="Dunlap 2010">{{cite journal|last1=Dunlap|first1=Riley E.|last2=McCright|first2=Araon M.|title=A Widening Gap: Republican and Democratic Views on Climate Change|journal=Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development|date=August 7, 2010|volume=50|issue=5|pages=26–35|doi=10.3200/ENVT.50.5.26-35|s2cid=154964336}}</ref> Since then, Republicans have increasingly taken positions against environmental regulation,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Bergquist|first1=Parrish|last2=Warshaw|first2=Christopher|date=2020|title=Elections and parties in environmental politics|url=https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781788972833/9781788972833.00017.xml|journal=Handbook of U.S. Environmental Policy|pages=126–141|language=en-US|doi=10.4337/9781788972840.00017|isbn=978-1788972840|s2cid=219077951|access-date=November 7, 2021|archive-date=November 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107233114/https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781788972833/9781788972833.00017.xml|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Fredrickson|first1=Leif|last2=Sellers|first2=Christopher|last3=Dillon|first3=Lindsey|last4=Ohayon|first4=Jennifer Liss|last5=Shapiro|first5=Nicholas|last6=Sullivan|first6=Marianne|last7=Bocking|first7=Stephen|last8=Brown|first8=Phil|last9=de la Rosa|first9=Vanessa|last10=Harrison|first10=Jill|last11=Johns|first11=Sara|date=April 1, 2018|title=History of US Presidential Assaults on Modern Environmental Health Protection|journal=American Journal of Public Health|volume=108|issue=S2|pages=S95–S103|doi=10.2105/AJPH.2018.304396|issn=0090-0036|pmc=5922215|pmid=29698097}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Coley|first1=Jonathan S.|last2=Hess|first2=David J.|date=2012|title=Green energy laws and Republican legislators in the United States|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421512004752|journal=Energy Policy|language=en|volume=48|pages=576–583|doi=10.1016/j.enpol.2012.05.062|bibcode=2012EnPol..48..576C |issn=0301-4215|access-date=November 7, 2021|archive-date=June 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190618224202/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421512004752|url-status=live}}</ref> with many Republicans rejecting the [[scientific consensus on climate change]].<ref name="Dunlap 2010" /><ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=978-0674979970|title=The Republican Reversal: Conservatives and the Environment from Nixon to Trump|last1=Turner|first1=James Morton|last2=Isenberg|first2=Andrew C.|date=2018|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0674979970 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108151027/http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=978-0674979970|archive-date=January 8, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Ringquist>{{cite journal|last1=Ringquist|first1=Evan J.|last2=Neshkova|first2=Milena I.|last3=Aamidor|first3=Joseph|title=Campaign Promises, Democratic Governance, and Environmental Policy in the U.S. Congress|journal=The Policy Studies Journal|date=2013|volume=41|issue=2|pages=365–387|doi=10.1111/psj.12021|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Shipan Environmental Policy">{{cite journal|last1=Shipan|first1=Charles R.|last2=Lowry|first2=William R.|title=Environmental Policy and Party Divergence in Congress|journal=Political Research Quarterly|date=June 2001|volume=54|issue=2|pages=245–263|jstor=449156|doi=10.1177/106591290105400201|s2cid=153575261}}</ref> Republican voters are divided over the human causes of climate change and global warming.<ref>{{cite web |date=November 1, 2013 |title=GOP Deeply Divided Over Climate Change |url=http://www.people-press.org/2013/11/01/gop-deeply-divided-over-climate-change/ |access-date=December 11, 2014 |website=[[Pew Research Center]] |publisher=}}</ref> Since 2008,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/us/politics/republican-leaders-climate-change.html |title=How G.O.P. Leaders Came to View Climate Change as Fake Science |last1=Davenport |first1=Coral |last2=Lipton |first2=Eric |author-link2=Eric Lipton |date=June 3, 2017 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=September 22, 2017 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |quote=The Republican Party's fast journey from debating how to combat human-caused climate change to arguing that it does not exist is a story of big political money, Democratic hubris in the Obama years and a partisan chasm that grew over nine years like a crack in the Antarctic shelf, favoring extreme positions and uncompromising rhetoric over cooperation and conciliation.}}</ref> many members of the Republican Party have been criticized for being [[Anti-environmentalism|anti-environmentalist]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Shabecoff|first1=Philip|title=Earth Rising: American Environmentalism in the 21st Century|date=2000|publisher=Island Press|isbn=978-1-59726-335-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/earthrisingameri00phil/page/125 125]|url=https://archive.org/details/earthrisingameri00phil|url-access=registration|quote=republican party anti-environmental.|access-date=9 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Hayes|first1=Samuel P.|title=A History of Environmental Politics Since 1945|date=2000|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|isbn=978-0-8229-7224-2|page=119|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jG5IwgEFSYQC&q=republican+party+anti-environmentalist&pg=PA119|access-date=9 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Sellers |first1=Christopher |date=7 June 2017 |title=How Republicans came to embrace anti-environmentalism |url=https://www.vox.com/2017/4/22/15377964/republicans-environmentalism |access-date=9 November 2017 |website=[[Vox (website)|Vox]]}}</ref> and promoting [[climate change denial]]<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Dunlap|first1=Riley E.|last2=McCright|first2=Araon M.|title=A Widening Gap: Republican and Democratic Views on Climate Change|journal=Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development|date=7 August 2010|volume=50|issue=5|pages=26–35|doi=10.3200/ENVT.50.5.26-35|s2cid=154964336}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Båtstrand |first=Sondre |title=More than Markets: A Comparative Study of Nine Conservative Parties on Climate Change |journal=[[Politics and Policy]] |language=en |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=538–561 |doi=10.1111/polp.12122 |issn=1747-1346 |year=2015 |s2cid=143331308 |quote=The U.S. Republican Party is an anomaly in denying anthropogenic climate change.}}</ref><ref name="chait">{{cite news |title=Why Are Republicans the Only Climate-Science-Denying Party in the World? |author-link=Jonathan Chait |first=Jonathan |last=Chait |date=September 27, 2015 |access-date=September 20, 2017 |url=https://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/09/whys-gop-only-science-denying-party-on-earth.html |magazine=[[New York (magazine)|New York]] |quote=Of all the major conservative parties in the democratic world, the Republican Party stands alone in its denial of the legitimacy of climate science. Indeed, the Republican Party stands alone in its conviction that no national or international response to climate change is needed. To the extent that the party is divided on the issue, the gap separates candidates who openly dismiss climate science as a hoax, and those who, shying away from the political risks of blatant ignorance, instead couch their stance in the alleged impossibility of international action.}}</ref> in opposition to the general [[Scientific opinion on climate change|scientific consensus]], making them unique even among other worldwide conservative parties.<ref name="chait" />

In 2006, then-[[Governor of California|California Governor]] [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] broke from Republican orthodoxy to sign several bills imposing caps on [[carbon emissions]] in California. Then-President [[George W. Bush]] opposed mandatory caps at a national level. Bush's decision not to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant was [[Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency|challenged in the Supreme Court by 12 states]],<ref name="Landmark Law">{{cite news|title=Schwarzenegger takes center stage on warming|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15029070|access-date=July 3, 2014|agency=MSNBC News|publisher=[[NBC News]]|date=September 27, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714173432/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15029070/ns/us_news-environment/t/schwarzenegger-takes-center-stage-warming/#.U7U0QbFEJJw|archive-date=July 14, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> with the court ruling against the Bush administration in 2007.<ref>[{{SCOTUS URL Slip|06|05-1120}} Text of Opinion]</ref> Bush also publicly opposed ratification of the [[Kyoto Protocol]]s<ref name="Dunlap 2010" /><ref name=BushGW>{{cite web|author=Bush, George W.|title=Text of a Letter from the President|date=March 13, 2001|url=https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/03/20010314.html|access-date=November 9, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090722073329/http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/03/20010314.html|archive-date=July 22, 2009 }}</ref> which sought to limit greenhouse gas emissions and thereby [[climate change mitigation|combat climate change]]; his position was heavily criticized by climate scientists.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Schrope|first1=Mark|title=Criticism mounts as Bush backs out of Kyoto accord|journal=Nature|date=April 5, 2001|volume=410|issue=6829|page=616|doi=10.1038/35070738|pmid=11287908|bibcode=2001Natur.410..616S|doi-access=free}}</ref>

The Republican Party rejects [[Emissions trading|cap-and-trade]] policy to limit carbon emissions.<ref>{{cite web|title=Our GOP: The Party of Opportunity|url=http://www.gop.com/our-party/|access-date=December 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140821152805/http://www.gop.com/our-party/|archive-date=August 21, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> In the 2000s, Senator [[John McCain]] proposed bills (such as the [[McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act]]) that would have regulated carbon emissions, but his position on climate change was unusual among high-ranking party members.<ref name="Dunlap 2010" /> Some Republican candidates have supported the development of [[alternative fuel]]s in order to achieve [[U.S. energy independence|energy independence for the United States]]. Some Republicans support increased [[oil well|oil drilling]] in protected areas such as the [[Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]], a position that has drawn criticism from activists.<ref>{{cite news|title=On Our Radar: Republicans Urge Opening of Arctic Refuge to Drilling|author=John Collins Rudolf|date=December 6, 2010|url=http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/on-our-radar-republicans-urge-opening-of-arctic-refuge-to-drilling/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=December 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714181831/http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/on-our-radar-republicans-urge-opening-of-arctic-refuge-to-drilling/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0|archive-date=July 14, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Many Republicans during the [[presidency of Barack Obama]] opposed his administration's new environmental regulations, such as those on carbon emissions from coal. In particular, many Republicans supported building the [[Keystone Pipeline]]; this position was supported by businesses, but opposed by indigenous peoples' groups and environmental activists.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Davenport|first1=Coral|title=Republicans Vow to Fight E.P.A. and Approve Keystone Pipeline|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/us/politics/republicans-vow-to-fight-epa-and-approve-keystone-pipeline.html|access-date=January 25, 2016|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=November 10, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113013421/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/us/politics/republicans-vow-to-fight-epa-and-approve-keystone-pipeline.html|archive-date=January 13, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Levy|first1=Gabrielle|title=Obama Vetoes Keystone XL, Republicans Vow to Continue Fight|url=https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/02/24/obama-vetoes-keystone-xl-republicans-vow-to-continue-fight|access-date=January 25, 2016|work=[[U.S. News & World Report]]|date=February 24, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160201202834/http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/02/24/obama-vetoes-keystone-xl-republicans-vow-to-continue-fight|archive-date=February 1, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Keystone XL pipeline: Why is it so disputed?|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30103078|access-date=January 25, 2016|work=[[BBC News]]|date=November 6, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160209145216/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30103078|archive-date=February 9, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to the [[Center for American Progress]], a non-profit liberal advocacy group, more than 55% of congressional Republicans were [[climate change denial|climate change deniers]] in 2014.<ref name=msnbc20140512>{{cite news|work=[[Hardball With Chris Matthews]]|date=May 12, 2014|publisher=[[MSNBC]]|last=Matthews|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Matthews|quote=According to a survey by the Center for American Progress' Action Fund, more than 55 percent of congressional Republicans are climate change deniers. And it gets worse from there. They found that 77 percent of Republicans on the House Science Committee say they don't believe it in either. And that number balloons to an astounding 90 percent for all the party's leadership in Congress.|title=Hardball With Chris Matthews for May 12, 2014|agency=NBC news}}</ref><ref name=charlestongazette20141222>{{cite news|title=Earth Talk: Still in denial about climate change|newspaper=[[Charleston Gazette-Mail|The Charleston Gazette]]|location=[[Charleston, West Virginia]]|date=December 22, 2014|page=10|quote=... a recent survey by the non-profit Center for American Progress found that some 58 percent of Republicans in the U.S. Congress still "refuse to accept climate change. Meanwhile, still others acknowledge the existence of global warming but cling to the scientifically debunked notion that the cause is natural forces, not greenhouse gas pollution by humans.}}</ref> [[PolitiFact]] in May 2014 found "relatively few Republican members of Congress&nbsp;... accept the prevailing scientific conclusion that [[global warming]] is both real and man-made." The group found eight members who acknowledged it, although the group acknowledged there could be more and that not all members of Congress have taken a stance on the issue.<ref>{{cite news|title=Jerry Brown says 'virtually no Republican' in Washington accepts climate change science|first=Julie|last=Kliegman|date=May 18, 2014|access-date=September 18, 2017|publisher=[[PolitiFact]]|work=[[Tampa Bay Times]]|url=http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/may/18/jerry-brown/jerry-brown-says-virtually-no-republican-believes-/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813152353/http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/may/18/jerry-brown/jerry-brown-says-virtually-no-republican-believes-/|archive-date=August 13, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Meet the Republicans in Congress who don't believe climate change is real|first=Tom|last=McCarthy|date=November 17, 2014|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/17/climate-change-denial-scepticism-republicans-congress|access-date=September 18, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170919234320/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/17/climate-change-denial-scepticism-republicans-congress|archive-date=September 19, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

From 2008 to 2017, the Republican Party went from "debating how to combat human-caused climate change to arguing that it does not exist", according to ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/us/politics/republican-leaders-climate-change.html|title=How G.O.P. Leaders Came to View Climate Change as Fake Science|last1=Davenport|first1=Coral|date=June 3, 2017|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=September 22, 2017|last2=Lipton|first2=Eric|issn=0362-4331|quote=The Republican Party's fast journey from debating how to combat human-caused climate change to arguing that it does not exist is a story of big political money, Democratic hubris in the Obama years and a partisan chasm that grew over nine years like a crack in the Antarctic shelf, favoring extreme positions and uncompromising rhetoric over cooperation and conciliation.|author-link2=Eric Lipton|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170914183020/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/us/politics/republican-leaders-climate-change.html|archive-date=September 14, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> In January 2015, the Republican-led U.S. Senate voted 98–1 to pass a resolution acknowledging that "climate change is real and is not a hoax"; however, an amendment stating that "human activity significantly contributes to climate change" was supported by only five Republican senators.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/230316-senate-votes-98-1-that-climate-change-is-real/|title=Senate votes that climate change is real|first=Dustin|last=Weaver|date=January 21, 2015|website=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]]|access-date=March 26, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327090248/https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/230316-senate-votes-98-1-that-climate-change-is-real|archive-date=March 27, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>