‘The Conservative Environmentalist’ proposes bipartisan climate solutions
New Mexico Oil and Gas Association President and CEO Missi Currier, right, talks on Wednesday to Benji Backer, whose new book “The Conservative Environmentalist” comes out in a couple of weeks.
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The key to climate crisis solutions is making it a nonpartisan issue and balancing the need for fossil fuels while ramping up renewable energy resources.
That’s what Benji Backer, former president and founder of the American Conservation Coalition, said at a panel hosted by the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association on Wednesday in Albuquerque. He was there to speak about what he described as uniquely conservative views on environmental needs.
Republican and Democrat lawmakers sat in the audience. Backer said he doesn’t care what a person’s political leanings are; nature is a bipartisan matter.
“I want the environment to be about the environment. And for a while, it’s been about politics,” he said.
He said people shouldn’t have to pay more for energy that’s unreliable, which has happened in countries that moved away from fossil fuels too quickly and drastically. He said he once believed oil and gas should go away immediately, but the resources instead need to be embraced in the cleanest way possible.
At the same time, clean energy such as solar and wind needs to be developed, he said. And, he said, the oil and gas industry can act as an energy partner in the transition.
“The demand for energy is not going down,” he said.
Backer’s new book, “The Conservative Environmentalist,” comes out on April 16.
