[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.0.101″ src=”http:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/InglisP1W_MW-1.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.101″ background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.101″ custom_padding=”2px|0px|37.9062px|0px” prev_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|0px|18.9531px|0px” custom_margin=”10px|||” _builder_version=”3.0.92″][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image 1″ show_in_lightbox=”on” show_bottom_space=”off” _builder_version=”3.0.101″ custom_margin=”||2px|” custom_padding=”|||” animation_style=”slide” box_shadow_style=”preset2″ box_shadow_horizontal=”4px” box_shadow_vertical=”4px” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” src=”http:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/InglisP2W_MW.jpg” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Caption 1″ _builder_version=”3.0.101″ text_font=”|600|||||||” text_font_size=”12px” text_line_height=”1.4em” custom_margin=”8px|||2px” custom_padding=”|||” background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n
Among the bright spots Inglis sees for the future of clean energy in South Carolina: the conversion of coal-fired energy plants to natural gas. McMeekin Station in Irmo completed its transition to natural gas in 2016.<\/p>\n
Credit: De’Angelo Stevenson<\/p>\n
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South Carolina residents in opposition to offshore drilling gather on the State House steps on Feb. 14.<\/p>\n
Credit: De’Angelo Stevenson<\/p>\n
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Before taking the chairmanship of the Palmetto Conservative Solar Coalition, Matt Moore served as chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party from 2013 to 2017.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image _builder_version=”3.0.101″ src=”http:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/InglisGraphic1_MW.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”News Story” _builder_version=”3.0.101″ custom_margin=”0px||0px|” background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n
Bob Inglis had an excellent reason for not buying climate change \u2013 Al Gore was selling it.<\/p>\n
Now as he leads the Energy and Enterprise Initiative, a conservative group he founded promoting free-enterprise answers to climate change, Inglis finds the environmental views he held as a congressman in the 1990s \u201crather ignorant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the end of the inquiry; Al Gore was for it, so I was against it,\u201d Inglis said.<\/p>\n
Inglis was elected in 1992 to represent South Carolina\u2019s District 4, covering Greenville-Spartanburg, \u201cthe reddest district in the reddest state in the nation,\u201d he said. From then until 1998, his environmental views were shaped in direct opposition to the Democratic vice president, whose \u201cAn Inconvenient Truth\u201d book and film changed the way the world viewed global warming.<\/p>\n
Inglis was re-elected to Congress in 2005. Not long after, Inglis’ son told his father to re-think his views on the environment, or else he might not get his vote.<\/p>\n
That millennial admonition was the first step in the re-education of Bob Inglis. His second was a trip to Antarctica with the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology; the third was another committee journey snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef.<\/p>\n
There, Inglis made a connection with an Australian climate scientist which he deemed a \u201cspiritual awakening.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI could tell that he and I shared a world view even though no words had been spoken,\u201d Inglis said. \u201cI could see that he was worshipping God in what he was showing me.\u201d<\/p>\n
On returning home, Inglis introduced the Raise Wages, Cut Carbon Act of 2009 to the House. The bill sought lower Social Security taxes to be offset by greater taxes on fossil fuels. It did not sit well with a Republican Party in the midst of the Tea Party wave of 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cNote to self: Do not introduce carbon tax in midst of Great Recession in reddest district in reddest state in nation,\u201d Inglis said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
Inglis lost the District 4 primary in a landslide to Trey Gowdy, who suggested he and a majority of the 4th<\/sup> district constituents did not believe in climate change. (Gowdy recently announced his retirement from the House.)<\/p>\n As far back as 1998, the EPA found that sea level near Charleston was rising at a rate of 9 inches per 100 years, and predicted that the cost of sand replacement to protect the S.C. coastline from a 20-inch rise could reach nearly $10 billion. And given the impacts felt around the state by Hurricanes Joaquin, Matthew and Irma in consecutive years, those costs are only headed upwards.<\/p>\n Rouzy Vafaie, second vice chair of the Charleston County Republican Party, once discounted global warming. But after becoming friends with Inglis and listening to his initiatives, he came to accept both the scientific evidence and the Energy and Enterprise Initiative\u2019s solutions.<\/p>\n \u201cOne argument I bring up with my climate change-denying friends is \u2018Well, you know, if you guys are right and nothing changes, well, then great,\u2019\u201d Vafaie said. \u201c\u2018We\u2019re in perfect shape. But if you guys are wrong, by the time we can actually do anything about it, game\u2019s over.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n One of the main pillars of Inglis\u2019 initiative is a carbon tax similar to the one he proposed in the 1990s, which he believes could sell well with conservatives if it lowers the necessity of some environmental regulations.<\/p>\n \u201cSlightly smaller government means that once you put the carbon tax on, you can eliminate some Clean Air Act regulations,\u201d Inglis said. \u201cNot the entirety of the Clean Air Act, obviously, but some parts of Clean Air Act regulations can go away because by the pricing of carbon dioxide, it\u2019s a proxy for those regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n Inglis also supports a border adjustment tax, which he believes is necessary to keep trade competitive while still charging for carbon emissions.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we price carbon dioxide by ourselves and it didn\u2019t have that border adjustment, then manufacturers would pick up and move from the United States to China,\u201d Inglis said. \u201cOnce they got there, they\u2019d emit more CO2 than they\u2019re emitting here because China is less energy efficient than we are\u2026if you can\u2019t make this worldwide, it\u2019s really fruitless to attempt it.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, to get such policies in place, Inglis still needs a larger party-wide acceptance of climate change. Both he and Vafaie said there is growing agreement among Republicans of the human impact on the climate. But both also agree that some sectors of the party are harder to sway than others.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I speak in the Young Republican circles, I think it\u2019s unanimously believed that there is [a human] impact,\u201d Vafaie said. \u201cAs the age groups go up, I find it extremely difficult to convince people.\u201d<\/p>\n Inglis said he believes conservatives are responsive to his solutions but that \u201cpopulist nationalist\u201d voters, especially those believing the narrative of a \u201cwar on coal,\u201d are a different story.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we got a good shot with conservatives,\u201d Inglis said. \u201cWe got a hard, hard road to hoe with populist nationalists.\u201d<\/p>\n Matt Moore chaired the South Carolina Republican Party from 2013 to last May. Now the chairman of the Palmetto Conservative Solar Coalition, Moore works to make it easier to establish a free market for solar energy in South Carolina. Like Vafaie, he sees growing acceptance of climate science within his party\u2019s young people.<\/p>\n \u201cFor millennials, anyone with a brain can see that humans contribute to environmental emissions,\u201d Moore, a graduate of Georgia Tech\u2019s industrial engineering program, said.<\/p>\n Moore said solar energy is very much on the rise in South Carolina since the state adopted net energy metering in 2014. Under net metering, residents owning solar panels receive reimbursements on their electric bills for the energy their panels return to the grid. The deal also allows producers to avoid fees from state utility companies through the end of 2020.<\/p>\n \u201cConservation is conservative,\u201d Moore said. \u201cMy job as chairman of the PCSC is to go out there and tell the story that Republicans can actually lead on conservation through innovation.<\/p>\n \u201cConservatives don\u2019t want extreme government intervention, we in fact believe that market forces can drive innovation to create change,\u201d Moore said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what Congressman Inglis has been focused on now for a number of years. If we removed all subsidies on energy and created a true free market, then maybe these policies actually begin to make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the most GOP-dominated states in the nation stands to risk the most from climate change. Former Congressman Bob Inglis wants his fellow South Carolinians to think deeply about the issue. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":3539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3526"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8687,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526\/revisions\/8687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}