Young Republicans Want GOP Climate Change Action
SCIUTTO: Many young Republicans say that fighting climate change is a generational issue, not a political one. In fact, some of these college students believe the GOP is wrong to dismiss the subject. Our chief climate correspondent Bill Weir wants to know why.</s>BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the Conservative Political Action Conference, you'd expect Fox News and the NRA, deplorable hammocks, Donald Trump nutcrackers and statues made of nails.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's America's superhero, and he's tough as nails.</s>WEIR (voice-over): But this year's CPAC had something new.</s>WEIR: So do you consider yourself sort of a Republican Greta?</s>KIERA O'BRIEN, FOUNDER, YOUNG CONSERVATIVES FOR CARBON DIVIDENDS: No, no. I see myself as a solution-seeker.</s>WEIR: OK.</s>O'BRIEN: I'm done with us talking about the problem. We've talked about the problem, we recognize the problem and now we need to talk about solutions.</s>WEIR (voice-over): She is the leader of this booth full of Republicans all devoted to fighting climate change.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our website --</s>WEIR (voice-over): With taxes on big oil --</s>WEIR: I've been to a few CPACs in my day, and spotting a climate-woke Republican who wants to have a carbon tax, is like spotting a snow leopard in the wild. I mean, what drives this change?</s>O'BRIEN: I think it's a lot of young people, honestly. This is really a generational issue. We believe that people my age and a little bit older are really waking up to the problem that is climate change on both sides of the aisle.</s>WEIR (voice-over): And in a packed happy hour around the corner --</s>BACKER: It's really awesome to see such an amazing crowd of conservatives who are about the environment here --</s>WEIR (voice-over): A rival group of conservative climate hawks gather as, for the first time, polls show more than half of young Republicans believe the government isn't doing enough to fight manmade global warming. But as more of them agree with Greta that our house is on fire, new debates are breaking out over the best way to put it out.</s>BACKER: I think she's incredible, for someone her age to be speaking up and shifting the course of global history.</s>WEIR (voice-over): Benji Backer grew up knocking on doors for John McCain and Mitt Romney as a kid. And in college, created the American Conservation Coalition.</s>WEIR: Do you support President Trump?</s>BACKER: I don't support President Trump's approach to the environment so far --</s>WEIR (voice-over): A group built for green and frustrated young Republicans.</s>BACKER: -- and the fact that you have to have some government protections on human health and the environment, and protecting animals and wildlife, that has to be there.</s>WEIR (voice-over): He says his group now has chapters on over 200 campuses, all who share the belief that free market forces and innovation can stop global warming.</s>BACKER: Everyone in my generation wants to buy Tesla. Everyone in my generation wants to have solar panels on their roofs. They're -- that demand is there, and that's a culture change that no government policy could ever enact.</s>WEIR (voice-over): He opposes most regulation and a carbon tax. But Kiera O'Brien disagrees. She's an Alaskan, helping pay for Harvard with the money her state takes from big oil and gives to each resident. So she's all in for the Baker-Shultz plan, named for the members of Ronald Reagan's cabinet who helped write it.</s>O'BRIEN: This is the solution that is backed by the largest statement of economists in the history of the profession of economics.</s>WEIR (voice-over): It would tax carbon and divvy it up among Americans. The average family would get about $2,000 a year to start, but both tax and dividend would ramp up until fossil fuel goes the way of the dinosaurs.</s>O'BRIEN: I would love for President Trump to sign a plan just like this.</s>WEIR: Do you think he will?</s>O'BRIEN: I think he could.</s>WEIR: Really?</s>O'BRIEN: Yes.</s>WEIR: But if he wins again, what does that do for the climate do you think, based on his attitudes historically?</s>O'BRIEN: I mean, attitudes can change in the future. We're betting on it with the Republican Party as a whole. I see no reason why President Trump couldn't change his mind as well.</s>WEIR (voice-over): Bill Weir, CNN, Washington.</s>SCIUTTO: Our thanks to Bill Weir for that report. Before we go to break, in this week's risk-takers, today's customers want fresh food. And when you think fresh, most people do not thing McDonald's. But McDonald's recently took a risk on a menu staple. Take a look.</s>RACHEL CRANE, CNN INNOVATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The McDonald's quarter pounder burger, a sandwich that's practically an American icon. It's been prepared basically the same way since it was introduced back in the 1970s. That is, until 2018 when the company decided to make a big change to the recipe: a quarter pounder made with fresh beef, not frozen.</s>MARION GROSS, CHIEF SUPPLY CHAIN OFFICER, MCDONALD'S: This was probably the most difficult change that we made since we made the move to all-day breakfast.</s>CRANE (voice-over): The rollout to 14,000 locations in the U.S. was no small feat. The goal was to cook up a juicy burger without slowing down McDonald's kitchen, and ensuring the food remained safe.</s>CRANE: What was particularly for you something that was really challenging or a nut that had to be cracked that, you know, kept you up at night?</s>GROSS: For me, it was really the food safety piece. That was the number one thing for me.</s>CRANE: Food safety issues can tank a company's reputation. That's what happened to Chipotle after dozens of customers got sick from an E. coli outbreak.</s>GROSS: There can be risks with frozen patties as well as with fresh patties. It just means you have to have more robust procedures when you're handling fresh beef product.</s>CRANE (voice-over): Those changes included a $60 million investment to upgrade equipment like refrigerators and food packaging technology. The investments have paid off. Sales of the quarter pounders are up 30 percent.</s>GROSS: You can never get rid of all risk, that's impossible. But knowing that you've done everything you can to protect food safety, it lets you sleep better at night for sure.