The draft resolution circulated by Rep. Matt Gaetz acknowledges climate change as a threat to national security but does not set targets for future carbon cuts. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Energy & Environment Gaetz drafting ‘Green Real Deal’ climate resolution

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is circulating a “Green Real Deal” resolution to counter the “Green New Deal” floated by Democrats, according to a draft copy obtained by POLITICO.

The resolution acknowledges climate change as a threat to national security and says the government should promote innovation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but it does not set any targets for future carbon cuts and calls for keeping the door open to all types of energy production. It would be the most detailed GOP response to the Green New Deal resolution that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced last month. Republicans say the Green New Deal would invite Big Government solutions and an expansion of public spending, but many in the party are increasingly acknowledging the reality of climate change and looking for alternative approaches.


Gaetz is a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump, and in the previous Congress even sponsored a bill to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency, but he also represents a coastal Florida district exposed to the danger climate change presents to aquatic ecosystems, tourism and fisheries. He was a member of the Climate Solutions Caucus, a bipartisan collection of House lawmakers that critics said gave Republicans political cover but supporters said demonstrated a potential breakthrough for GOP action on climate.

“Climate change is real. Humans contribute,” Gaetz tweeted last week.

The five-page, nonbinding resolution says, “It is the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green Real Deal.” It calls for removing regulations that hinder “advanced energy,” investing in innovation and encouraging voluntary reporting of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a copy labeled “DELIBERATIVE DRAFT.”

Gaetz’s resolution has been circulating among energy lobbyists ahead of an expected introduction in the coming days. Gaetz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Senate is expected to vote on the Markey Green New Deal resolution next week. It is unclear whether any GOP senators are working on a companion to Gaetz’s resolution.

Gaetz does not establish any goal for future emission reductions, but his resolution cites the fact that U.S. emissions have fallen about 10 percent since 2005. The Green New Deal, meanwhile, encourages getting on a path within 10 years to neutralize carbon emissions, a goal that’s aligned with warnings from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for keeping temperature increases below 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid locking in the worst effects of climate change.

The draft Green Real Deal resolution highlights the National Climate Assessment’s findings that “Climate change creates new risks and exacerbates existing vulnerabilities in communities across the United States, presenting growing challenges to human health and safety, quality of life, and the rate of economic growth.”

The resolution proposes a “commitment to innovation” as part of an effort to “achieve robust, economywide greenhouse gas emission reductions” and “to position the United States as a global leader in clean energy and capture global markets as countries invest in low- and zero-emissions technologies.”

It suggests spurring investment in carbon capture and storage technology to potentially reach net-zero emissions from fossil fuels, zero-emissions sources such as renewable energy and small modular nuclear reactors, changing the National Environmental Policy Act to clear obstacles for building transmission lines needed to bring renewable power onto the electric grid and creating a voluntary reporting system to track emissions reductions, renewable energy procurement and energy efficiency investments, among other things.

It also aims to “reduce and modernize regulations” to speed clean energy deployment while taking steps to “affirm that the government should not pick winners and losers” and “to empower individuals, states, and the marketplace” to promote cleaner energy sources.