This Kansas Republican is promoting green energy. That relieves my climate doom a bit | Opinion

For the first time in a long time, I’m feeling some small bit of optimism about climate change.

It’s true: I am usually what my Republican friends probably would call a “climate alarmist,” terrified for the world my teen son is about to inherit. And with good reason, I think.

Kansas is already plagued by devastating wildfires and a drought that is killing off the crops that help this state feed the planet. As those disruptions persist and get even worse, society itself probably will become more fragile, making day-to-day life more unstable and dangerous for just about everybody.

Again, though, there are some small reasons for hope.

The International Energy Agency just announced that investments in solar power will beat oil investments this year. That’s good news. The debt ceiling deal reached by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy pretty much spared the federal government’s efforts to replace gas-guzzling cars with electric vehicles. That’s good news.

And Kansans in Congress are helping lead the clean energy effort. That’s good and unexpected news.

Take Rep. Ron Estes, the Wichita Republican. He isn’t exactly a climate hawk — Estes has spent his political career railing against the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the Green New Deal — an ambiguous proposal to wean the nation from fossil fuels — and climate-focused environmental, social and governance investments.

Oh, and he has a lifetime score of 3% from the League of Conservation Voters.

But don’t despair! Because Estes is backing a bipartisan bill that would actually encourage investments in so-called “green” energy.

It’s complicated, but the Financing Our Energy Future Act would let investors in solar, wind and other clean power projects take advantage of a tax structure — “master limited partnerships” — available now only to folks who put their money into oil, gas and coal projects. Estes is co-sponsoring the bill with Rep. Mike Thompson, a California Democrat.

Is this hypocrisy, given Estes’ other climate-related positions? Nah. It’s good business.

Kansas, you might have noticed, is a hotbed for wind and solar projects that will power America’s carbon-free future. We already have so many wind farms that neighbors complain about the blinking red lights meant to ward off errant pilots — the Sunflower State already generates enough wind power to supply more than 3.2 million homes. And solar farms are popping up in Johnson and Sedgwick counties, and just about everyplace else across the state.

There’s money in that green energy. But oil and gas producers currently have all the tax advantages.

“Our tax code shouldn’t be picking winners and losers — especially in American energy production,” Estes said in a press release announcing the bill last week.

Estes isn’t the only Kansan trying to build our climate-friendly future. During debt ceiling negotiations last week, 3rd District Rep. Sharice Davids was in the mix, pushing for a deal that would make it easier to build out the robust electrical grid needed to handle all that clean energy.

“What we’re talking about right now is an area where Democrats and Republicans can come together,” the Democrat told Bloomberg News. “We need to be building stuff, we need transmission, we need to be able to get some of this renewable energy across the country and onto the grid.”

We aren’t quite at a climate utopia yet. There are still some “details to work out on the permitting process. And the Estes-Thompson bill has failed to get traction in previous efforts. There is work to be done.

What’s more, Davids and Estes come to the topic with different sets of concerns. Davids regularly affirms that climate change is real, while Estes can be somewhat more vague.

Would I like Estes to share my climate alarmism? Yes. Is that going to happen soon? Probably not. If creating a level playing field for solar and wind investors occasionally gets him to yes on green energy issues, I’ll take it.

The planet is warming, after all. We need all the optimism we can get.