Meet the new generation of conservative eco-warriors

In his first days in office, President Trump began doing what he promised he would do to Joe Biden’s environmental policy: dismantle it.Immediately after entering the White House, Trump — who’s described climate change as a “hoax” — issued an executive order to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change.With a separate executive order, he froze billions of dollars in grants for clean energy and other environmental programs passed by Biden under the Inflation Reduction Act.

Funding for electric-vehicle incentives and grants for charging stations are also paused.Tying all these moves together is Trump’s executive order declaring a national energy emergency.“We need a reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of energy to drive our Nation’s manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, and defense industries,” reads the order.Left-wing environmentalists have been aghast, suggesting that Trump’s moves will plunge the planet into a new round of climate catastrophe.

“No one in American history has shown more disdain for the environment,” said Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity.“[Trump’s] anti-environment agenda is overwhelmingly unpopular and truly a threat to life on Earth.”But not all environmental advocates are feeling pessimistic.

Call them the new green conservative brigade.A mix of nonprofits, political action committees and podcasters, they represent a rising movement of environmentalists who believe you can care about the planet and still hold conservative values. In spite of Trump’s early actions, they say they are hopeful about what the new four years might bring.

And one of their big goals is to reclaim the environmental debate from the left and make it their own. “When ordinary people look at climate change, they think of protestors blocking traffic and making people late to work.And they don’t feel it represents them,” says Danielle Butcher Fra...