Barry Rabe is quoted in a November 7 Newsweek article on climate politics. The article by Emily Cadei, “After Keystone rejection, climate politics are just heating up,” focuses on political reactions—left and right—in the wake of President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Cadei writes that some anticipated Obama’s move “as a diplomatic overture ahead of the [UN Conference on Climate Change] talks.” Rabe is cited arguing that the upcoming climate conference is not the only factor.
“An expert on public policy and public opinion on the environment, Rabe suggests the president’s aggressive unilateral moves have prompted a growing conservative backlash,” writes Cadei. “But he also says there’s been a shift in public opinion.”
She cites the recently released National Surveys on Energy and Environment report, a collaboration between the Ford School’s Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) and the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion, which finds that American acceptance of climate change is at its highest level since 2008 with some of the greatest gains in belief registered among Republicans and evangelical Christians.
Barry Rabe is the J. Ira and Nikki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy at the Ford School and the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Environmental Policy in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Michigan. He is the director of the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP).