Over the past few years, the conservative movement in America is enjoying a renaissance—reaching across demographics and producing principled leaders. This latest generation of conservative leadership has now come to Congress and is exemplified by Freshman Congressman Blake Moore.
Moore, who represents Utah’s 1st congressional district, sat down today with John Hart on the Right Voices interview series to discuss how he is advancing conservative solutions to climate change and other environmental issues.
Congressman Moore said he got into public service because he believed that he had something “unique to offer” to Congress. In his short time as an elected official, Moore has indeed offered unique and principled conservative perspectives, including addressing our federal budget deficit and engaging in issues of climate and the environment by joining the Conservative Climate Caucus this summer. When asked why he joined the Caucus, Representative Moore stated:
“I was thrilled to support Rep. Curtis, he’s a great mentor to me. [Addressing climate change] isn’t the typical talking point that you get out of Republican candidates or Republican politicians, [but] why would I disagree with that?”
Moore continued:
“It was never the case [that Republicans don’t care about the climate], there was always good, productive work going on and I really appreciate what Representative Curtis has done to be able to bring that to the forefront and sort of mobilize that conservative voice that I feel has always been there. Look, if you go and work with industry, they are finding solutions to this and we need to be in lock-step with them and we need to have a voice at the table as well.”
Congressman Moore also addressed the common misconception that by engaging in the climate discussion, conservatives are ceding ground to progressives and socialism. Moore says this could not be further from the truth.
“The Democrat solutions will ultimately be what we’ve seen with President Biden recently…we [as conservatives] do this better. If we were willing to invest in American ingenuity, technology, stuff that industry has already been doing… that’s where the solutions will ultimately land.”
Rather than letting progressives own the issue, Rep. Moore has begun to offer solutions of his own. One is seen in his new “Save Our Forest Act.” Introduced with California’s Jimmy Panetta, this bill looks to address forest management concerns by filling staff shortages in the Forest Service.
In addition to the Save the Forest Act, Moore just introduced a second piece of key conservation legislation called the “Saline Lake Ecosystems in the Great Basin States Program Act.” This piece of legislation would provide resources to conduct conservation projects along saline ecosystems in western states.
Congressman Blake Moore is yet another example of a conservative who cares about the environment. Through his principled leadership, he is showing that issues of climate and conservation are innately conservative issues.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.
