Republican Dam Breaking On Climate Policy. 4 Former GOP EPA Leaders On Board

Four former GOP EPA administrators suggest dam about to break on climate policy. "The current Republican Party line casts skepticism on the science linking human activity to global warming and staunchly opposes legislative or administrative carbon caps. But in a roundtable with reporters, all four former officials reiterated the need for action on climate change, regardless of the political situation in Congress. And, citing an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that found 61 percent of Americans back action to combat climate change, they predicted the political dam would break....Whether the message from the retired administrators reaches the less politically shielded legislators remains to be seen." Jason Plautz in National Journal.

Nope, it's not reaching fellow Republicans not so far. "Four Republican former administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency had a message for the Senate on Wednesday on climate change: It's real, it's bad and the United States should do something about it. But their fellow Republicans at the hearing largely ignored that position, instead repeating a variety of arguments about why the U.S. should not address the greenhouse gas emissions causing the planet to warm up." Kate Sheppard in The Huffington Post.

A government shutdown looming over EPA climate rules? "If early Republican enthusiasm is any indication, the upcoming Sept. 30 deadline to keep the federal government open could turn into an all-out war over President Barack Obama's executive actions to combat climate change. As TPM reported earlier this week, senior House Republicans are considering using appropriations legislation to block the Environmental Protection Agency's new restrictions on coal-fired power plants, aimed at cutting climate-warming pollution by 30 percent by 2030. On Tuesday, numerous Senate Republicans expressed strong support for the idea." Sahil Kapur in Talking Points Memo.

Some Republicans are talking a bit differently about climate change. "These days, it takes careful parsing to pinpoint what Republican candidates believe about climate change....Certainly, base-wary Republicans haven't gone all-in yet. Their adjustment, however, is no accident: While the science itself is largely the same, the politics of its legitimacy has turned against Republicans in all but the reddest of states. It's a separate debate from the economic-focused one about the potential loss of jobs from the regulations — one Republicans are convinced they'll win — but it's nonetheless an issue rearing its head in the midterm elections." Alex Roarty in National Journal.

Chart: Summertime blues? The U.S. is seeing red on the temperature gauges. Climate Central.