GOP calls to roll back President Joe Biden’s climate and energy policies could get louder as the Republican primary field narrows. Following Donald Trump’s blowout win in the Iowa caucus, the race is now between the former president, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, starting with next Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. In Iowa, DeSantis came in a distant second, and Haley finished third. On the campaign trail in Iowa, the three candidates decried air and water regulations and Biden’s “electric vehicle mandate” (though no such mandate exists). But most energy and environmental issues were on the back burner, even in the state where ethanol is such a perpetual political force, writes Timothy Cama. Only 10 percent of Republican caucusgoers in Iowa said climate change was “extremely important” in how they evaluated candidates, according to an October poll by The Des Moines Register and NBC News. The only issue that polled lower was vaccinating against Covid-19. The economy and inflation were No. 1. The three GOP candidates focused most of their energy rhetoric on a version of “drill, baby, drill.” All have repeatedly promised to make America “energy dominant,” even as oil and gas production reaches record levels under Biden. They have also vowed to repeal Biden’s sweeping climate agenda, which they’ve inaccurately labeled the “Green New Deal.” Expect more of those messages — especially if, as polls and Tuesday’s results suggest, Trump is almost certain to become the Republican presidential nominee. The former president has promised to be an energy “dictator” on his first day in office and would use that power to “drill, drill, drill.” And if he wins the election, Trump is set to make his second term an even less restrained assault on climate policies than his first, writes Scott Waldman. “The approach is to go back to all-out fossil fuel production and sit on the EPA,” said Steve Milloy, a former Trump transition team adviser. The Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025 effort, which outlines policy goals for a second Trump term, would turn government agencies like EPA away from public health protections and toward increasing fossil fuel production.
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