House Republicans led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy are pushing the White House to promote U.S. fossil fuel exports as a way to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change.

McCarthy and the GOP leaders of energy and climate-related committees are preparing to send a letter to White House officials urging them to "ensure that U.S. low carbon technologies and natural resources play a significant role" in replacing dirtier alternatives "peddled by foreign adversaries such as China and Russia."

“Such a strategic approach would bolster our economy and strengthen global energy security, all while reducing global emissions," reads the letter, obtained exclusively by the Washington Examiner.

The Trump administration has long encouraged exports of U.S. coal and gas as a way to confront foreign adversaries such as Russia and China and lift the economic fortunes of domestic fossil fuel producers. But President Trump, a skeptic of climate change, does not speak about the opportunity of using U.S. energy resources to reduce emissions.

The White House has been reluctant to embrace a broader climate change agenda promoted by House Republicans designed to respond to polling showing the party’s vulnerability among young and suburban voters concerned about the environment and climate change.

House Republicans view pumping up fossil fuel exports as a way to entice Trump on friendly terrain.

The letter, which is expected to be sent to the White House later this month, is addressed to Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, and Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien. It is signed by high-profile members such as Steve Scalise, the second-ranking House Republican, Garret Graves, the top Republican on the Select Climate Change Committee, Greg Walden, the top GOP member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Rob Bishop, the ranking member on the Natural Resources Committee, and Liz Cheney, the third-ranking House Republican, along with others.

House Republicans say the United States should look to take advantage of projections showing continued global demand for fossil fuels by exporting more American oil and gas, which is generally produced more cleanly in the U.S. than in competitor nations.

“If not for American natural gas and other efficient fuel sources, China or Russia would be setting the standard for the world,” Walden told the Washington Examiner.

Republicans argue that exporting U.S. liquefied natural gas via tanker vessels to Europe and China can provide a cleaner alternative to Russian gas supplied by pipeline, which has historically been a cheaper option. Moscow is poised to increase its export capability by completing the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline with Germany, a project the Trump administration, working with Congress, has sought unsuccessfully to stop.

“We already know that Germany is willing to damage Europe’s energy security with Nord Stream 2,” Graves told the Washington Examiner. “Most people don’t appreciate that their embrace of dirty Putin gas also undermines global efforts to reduce emissions.”

House Republicans also encourage more coal exports in their letter, claiming that coal is produced with fewer emissions in the U.S. than in China or Russia.

The Republicans seek to contrast their agenda with those of liberal Democrats like top presidential contender Bernie Sanders, who has pledged to ban U.S. fracking and oil and gas exports in order to aggressively combat climate change by eliminating fossil fuel use.

Democrats, however, say the Republican’s effort to promote fossil fuel exports is insufficient and perhaps damaging, with the potential of sustaining global fossil fuel demand deeper into the future.

Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton White House climate adviser and lecturer at American University's Center for Environmental Policy, said Republicans are right to promote U.S. LNG exports in the short term.

He said, however, that Republicans are undermining their message by lumping in coal, a dirtier fossil fuel struggling in the U.S.

“The Right is no doubt overstating their case to extend it to coal,” Bledsoe said.

Bledsoe also said that the Trump administration has failed to embrace opportunities to reduce U.S. emissions from gas, which emits methane that is accidentally leaked or purposely flared by producers. The U.S. emits less methane compared to other countries, but Trump has proposed rolling back federal regulations designed to prevent leaking and flaring, and few House Republicans have opposed the policy.

“The true advantage of the U.S. fossil exports is in lower methane emissions from natural gas,” Bledsoe said. “The irony is the Trump administration has reduced that market advantage by killing methane regulations that the industry itself supports.”