THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Republicans have once again proved themselves masters at saying No to anything that might improve life for the majority of Americans if it means even the smallest cost to the richest.

While most Senate Republicans are saying climate change is real, they’re struggling to come up with a comprehensive strategy for dealing with an issue that looms as a potential flashpoint in 2020 congressional election campaigns.

Most GOP senators agreed with Sen. Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, who said “climate change is real. Humans contribute to climate change.”

But Republicans were wary of supporting any plan that sounds likely to expand the reach of government.

“We’re not going to recommend an alternative takeover by the government of the economy,” Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said, “but we should encourage innovation which will help clean the environment by providing incentives for that sort of research. It’s the same things we’ve always done.”

Another complication is that Republicans don’t agree on the scope of the climate change crisis.

“There are those that think the Green New Deal is a moral imperative and it may well be,” Roberts said. “But farmers feeding the world is also a moral imperative.”

Even if the GOP came up with a big plan, it would require an OK from President Donald Trump, who’s not sure what’s causing the problem.

“I think something’s happening. Something’s changing and it’ll change back again. I don’t think it’s a hoax, I think there’s probably a difference. But I don’t know that it’s man-made,” Trump told CBS’ “60 Minutes” in October.

Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, had similar thoughts.

“Most people on the alarmist side of this haven’t even thought this through at all,” he said. “I do know that all the people who blame everything on man have completely ignored the fact of what nature did before man.”

How to fight climate change is emerging as an important issue in 2020 congressional elections.

A December Quinnipiac University poll found 61 percent thought extreme weather events of the past few years are related to climate change. Two-thirds of those polled by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal that month said immediate or some action should be taken to curb climate change.

The issue is of particular concern to younger voters. About two-thirds of those 18 to 34 years old say climate change stands to have “a significant negative effect on the world” during their lives, well above the numbers registered for other age groups.

The issue could be particularly crucial in Democratic primaries. Quinnipiac found 92 percent of Democrats were very or somewhat concerned about climate change, compared to 36 percent of Republicans.

Republicans are defending vulnerable Senate seats in states hard-hit by those trends in recent years, notably Georgia, Colorado, North Carolina and Iowa. Democrats need a net gain of four seats next year to win control of the Senate, three if a Democratic presidential candidate wins.

In the House, where Republicans are likely to need a net gain of 18 seats to win control, they face tough races to regain four Democratic-held districts in New York, four more in New Jersey, three in Iowa and two in Virginia, all areas where climate change is an important topic.

The Democrats’ Green New Deal, spearheaded by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, is a series of broad goals meant to stem the impact of climate change. It has turned into a fierce political weapon for both parties.

In their efforts to deny reality, the Republicans have stood foursquare in the way of new and potentially hugely profitable industries, which may seem strange to a so-called pro-business party, but Republicans have always preferred the smell of old money.