"Will Conservatives Finally Embrace Clean Energy?"

Conservatives and evangelical Christians are making a case for clean energy.

"Just before Senator Chuck Grassley, of Iowa, took the stage at last week’s Conservative Clean Energy Summit, the event’s three hundred or so attendees were on their feet, pressing their hands to their hearts. They had sung along to a medley of anthems—'The Star-Spangled Banner,' 'God Bless America,' 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic,' the country-music chart-topper 'Proud to Be an American'—as the conference room at the Capitol Hill Hyatt Regency was bathed in a splashy light show of stars and stripes. 'It’s a privilege for me to be with people who believe that Jesus Christ is their personal savior and who are politically conservative,' Grassley said, 'And it’s a privilege to get to speak to you about the virtues of a strong energy policy.' That rhetorical jump might have sounded abrupt to a passerby, but to the crowd it made perfect sense.

The summit was organized and hosted by Michele Combs, who heads up the group Young Conservatives for Energy Reform (Y.C.E.R.), and her mother, Roberta Combs, the president and C.E.O. of the Christian Coalition of America. Whereas Roberta has been a major player in the anti-abortion movement and has lobbied for the appointment of conservative Supreme Court justices, Michele is staking her career on a notably different cause. 'Clean energy is not a Democrat issue. It’s a family issue,' she told me. 'It’s about freedom and health and jobs and conserving our environment. It brings everybody together. Al Gore and I go way back—he’s a good friend—but he’s polarizing. He can’t get this message to our constituency.' The summit was part of an ongoing effort to move the issues of climate change and clean energy from the margins of the Republican Party to its mainstream. Although the Combses scarcely spoke at the event, they chose others to make their case—the executive of a solar-power company, a three-star and a four-star general, two congressman, and six U.S. senators."

Amanda Little reports for the New Yorker October 29, 2015.