“I can see him coming around to some combination of a cap-and-trade program as the best alternative to regulate and at the same time not completely abandoning his principles on something by going to a place where we’re scientifically uncertain,” said David Struhs, who served six years as the Bush-appointed head of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
“Those are the kinds of conversations that he can engage in in a way that a less familiar politician, particular in the Republican Party, can’t do, even if they’re intellectually capable of it,” Struhs added. “They have to go hard right to prove they’re conservative. Jeb Bush is given a pass there because he’s already been there. He’s already done it.”…
Under Obama, climate legislation has been trapped in a partisan logjam ever since the first-term passage of a House cap-and-trade bill and then the unsuccessful attempt to find 60 Senate votes on a companion measure. Some backers of tough climate policy say Jeb Bush could help bring Republicans back to a debate the party has not wanted to engage in because of Obama.
“When we have a Republican in the White House, it forces the Republicans representing moderate states or districts to show that they’re not captured by every plank of the Republican platform,” said one long-time climate policy advocate. “On this issue that probably means showing they’re more open to dealing with climate change than one might assume.”
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