It is really simple, like it or not, Americans of all political stripes are concerned about climate change and
want government action.
The major disconnect is between
Republican voters wanting climate action and Republican politicians (
although that is changing)
For context,
The American Climate Contract is a conservative group trying to stop climate change.
The irony is, it is not even a case of if you believe climate change is real, the economic benefits of moving to
renewable energy sources will be a long term economic boom greater than the losses in the fossil fuel industry (here is collection of
stats and articles). There are a few sites tracking
renewable growth.
The history of the world is full of examples of new energy transitions being massive benefits for countries that end up being named epoch events. Look at the Industrial Revolution, the Oil Boom, so we are at the very start of the Renewable Boom.
The biggest irony is Texas has all the opportunity to be the #1 provide of renewable energy (it is 5x bigger wind energy than California and rapidly growing).
Even more,
most of the Red states are building renewables faster than all the Blue states combined.
Not due to Climate concerns, but from simple profit motivates reasons.
Republican's are politically killing themselves by not seizing on what is actually working for them, and benefit from parallels results of attracting pro-renewables Democrats.
Why do they insist to stay on the Titanic, when there is an empty lifeboat waiting for them?
Put another way, even when a Red state can easily meet, or even already exceeded, its carbon emission goals, they reject the policy. That is like quitting a game when one has already won.