Lindsey Granger Defends Republicans on Climate Change: 'The Goal is Energy Efficiency'

Lindsey Granger once again left The View hosts scratching their heads Tuesday morning when she defended Republicans' record on climate change.

The guest co-host insisted certain factions of the GOP, particularly its younger membership, understand that climate change is "a serious issue," and she touted an energy plan put forth by Republicans in June as evidence her party is addressing the problem — despite the fact that many environmentalists believe the proposal would actively worsen the climate crisis.

"I'm happy that there has been growth on this," Granger said Tuesday morning, during a discussion about President Biden considering making an emergency climate declaration. "If you think about years ago, maybe the Republican Party 40 years ago has been, 'No to climate change.' There's even been some climate deniers, unfortunately, in the party."

"Now if you look at Gen Z and Millennial Republicans, there are many people who agree climate change is something they're voting on, it's a serious issue," she continued. "I think that the entire party is not a monolith."

Granger went on to praise Sen. Joe Manchin for expressing concern that Biden's climate initiative doesn't provide "a plan for how people are going to get trained in these jobs" in the clean energy field.

"There are policies, even one that existed from the Republicans a month ago that they proposed. Even though it's not the same way to get to the goal, the goal is energy efficiency," she said.

BIDEN CONSIDERS CLIMATE EMERGENCY DECLARATION: On the heels of a heat wave causing power outages in Texas and historic waves flooding shorelines in Hawaii, Europe copes with record-breaking temperatures that left thousands dead – #TheView panel reacts. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/3XyH9R42V8

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When Joy Behar reminded her that Republicans who "keep voting down all of the green energy possibilities" don't seem too concerned about climate change, Granger doubled down. "There was a House deal that was proposed by the Republicans a month ago that everyone was shunning," she said. "Bipartisan is the only way to do it! Executive order is not the way to do it!"

"The reason they're shunning it, Lindsey, is because clean energy wasn't part of that bill," said Sunny Hostin, spelling it out for her. "And that's because over 80% of oil and gas donations went to Republican candidates over the past 30 years. 80%. So I don't think the Republican Party is in a position to tout its clean energy platform because it doesn't have a clean energy platform."

After some more back and forth, Whoopi Goldberg spoke up to criticize Manchin and Republicans for leaving Americans with a dying planet. "Every time they get into these kind of issues, we always get boned. The people always get boned," she said, her tone making it clear that the discussion was over. "Clean your crap up! You're doing a disservice to the people you're supposed to be supporting! What the hell is wrong with y'all?! Don't you see what's happening?"

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.