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Letter

Withdrawal from U.S. Climate Alliance is Wrong

The decision was nothing more than a personal political calculus to avert risking his future in politics in the GOP

By Jerry W. Elwood

Gov. Greg Gianforte’s recent withdrawal of Montana from the U.S. Climate Alliance makes it clear that he’s more interested in having the title and power of the office than in actually running Montana’s government effectively and serving the interests of all Montanans. His decision to withdraw was clearly not based on a lack of actual or potential benefits of remaining in the Alliance, nor was it based on any obvious principle or policy considerations.

We know this because member states of the Alliance are doing better environmentally and economically than non-member states and having coordinated actions across states to address climate change is more effective than each state working completely independently. Member states have reduced their carbon emissions and increased their per-capita economic output more than the non-member states. And they have employed more than 2.1 million workers in the clean energy sector prior to the pandemic and have added more than 133,000 clean energy jobs in the economy. 

But it’s obvious that none of these facts entered into Gianforte’s decision. The decision was nothing more than a personal political calculus to avert risking his future in politics in the GOP. He had to withdraw to avoid being the Alliance’s only Republican governor from a western state. He couldn’t possibly give any appearance of acknowledging that humans are causing climate change because denial of climate change and its cause is deeply embedded in the world view of most members of the GOP, including Gianforte. And having a Republican governor from a western state as an Alliance member would be completely antithetical to the GOP’s anti-science, climate-change-denial orthodoxy.

Moreover, as a Trump acolyte, Gianforte had to demonstrate his pro-Trump bona fides by walking away from a multi-state Alliance that is committed to the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement that Trump withdrew the U.S. from when he was president, and President Joe Biden has now rejoined. If Gianforte hopes to have any political future beyond his term as governor and failed to withdraw from the Alliance, he would rapidly become a pariah in the current version of the GOP.

What is striking about Gianforte’s decision to withdraw Montana from the Alliance is not just how wrong it was, but also its utter hypocrisy. Just days before his withdrawal decision, he pleaded for help from the U.S. government to deal with one of the impacts of climate change on Montana. He asked President Biden for help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to lessen the impacts of the severe drought in eastern Montana on farmers and ranchers. 

Following his decision to withdraw, he released a statement, saying that he believes the solution to climate change is unleashing American innovation, not overbearing government mandates. He doesn’t say whether or how this country’s capacity to innovate is constrained or what he will do, as governor, to unleash it in Montana. Innovation is certainly not under any intellectual or technological constraints, nor is it constrained by a lack of calls for innovative ideas, or by insufficient resources to pursue such ideas. 

Moreover, Gianforte’s statement about unleashing American innovation as a solution to climate change is laughable when you consider his track record. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, he voted to cut funding for clean energy initiatives, and a summary of his voting record shows that he generally opposed proposed legislation to protect the environment. That’s a circle he can’t square.

It’s always easier, of course, to walk away from an alliance than to stay and help achieve its purposes. So, it’s not surprising that Gianforte does the politically expedient thing for himself and walks away from a multi-state alliance that is benefitting all the member states, including Montana and this nation, both economically and environmentally. But of course, doing what’s best for Montana and this nation is not why he ran to be governor of this state. 

Jerry W. Elwood
Kalispell