Q: How is the Trump administration working to restore sanity to climate policies?

A: In the previous Congress, I served as ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee. The budget committee’s top job is drafting and enforcing the annual budget resolution that provides a public framework to manage the public purse. The budget resolution is the blueprint for congressional action on spending, revenue and the federal budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The committee also tracks the appropriations process to ensure spending levels abide by the budget resolution. However, despite there being another Senate committee with responsibility for the environment, the Democrat Senate Majority in the previous Congress derailed the Senate Budget Committee’s top mission to push a radical climate agenda. Instead of rolling up our sleeves to address the national debt and rein in deficit spending, the Budget Committee held 21 “climate change” hearings, with themes on outdoor recreation, “fossil fuel overlords” and a so-called climate-driven insurance crisis.

Climate change is a serious issue; an issue that merits a serious, science-based discussion. For years, a partisan-driven effort to create public hysteria about a climate-induced apocalypse has been manufactured by the media and climate activists. They’ve fought to shape public perception that man-made climate change poses an existential crisis to humanity. This whole hog approach to a climate-induced apocalypse was ginned up to allow for a whole-of-government solution. And the Obama and Biden administrations whipped up the climate frenzy to empower the federal bureaucracy and put the government in charge of the economy and people’s everyday lives. Consider the partisan-driven (and misnamed) Inflation Reduction Act that broke into Uncle Sam’s piggy bank to spend hundreds of billions to “tackle the climate crisis” and “advance “environmental justice.” The good news is the Trump administration’s Department of Energy is injecting desperately needed sanity and science into the conversation. In July, it released a peer-reviewed analysis about the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions developed by five independent scientists comprising the Department of Energy’s 2025 Climate Working Group, including the former chief scientific officer in the Obama Energy Department.

The Climate Working Group found most extreme weather events in the U.S., such as hurricanes, tornados, floods and droughts, do not show long-term trends and the frequency and intensity of such extreme weather aren’t supported by U.S. historical data. The report’s analysis of solar activity calls into question “consensus” theories that greenhouse gas emissions are primarily responsible for rising temperatures.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright observes that media coverage distorts science about natural disasters, such as this summer’s flash flooding in the Texas Hill Country. Separately, another independent climate scientist, Dr. Roger Pielke Jr., said historical data does not show flash flooding has become more common or severe. He’s also testified before the Senate Budget Committee to impress upon lawmakers the “absolute highest standards of scientific integrity” are needed to shape climate policy.

Q: How are you working to push science-based policies to address climate change?

A: As a lifelong family farmer, I bring common sense environmental stewardship to the policymaking table in Washington. I welcome a vigorous, data-driven debate on climate change to ensure the issue isn’t hijacked to restrict economic and personal freedoms. During the Obama administration, I pushed back on pig-headed federal regulations on cow gas and Meatless Mondays. The livelihoods of Iowa’s 86,000 farm families depend on sustainable practices, conservation and ecosystem management that are rooted in science, not scare tactics. That’s why I’m proud to invite my fellow Iowans to share their expertise to dispel Washington nonsense and a climate consensus driven by a political agenda versus scientific integrity. Last May, I welcomed Dr. Michael Castellano, a professor at Iowa State University’s Department of Agronomy to testify about water scarcity. Through my legislative and oversight work, I’ll continue to push a science-based approach to climate policies, from next-generation renewable energy and biofuels, including sustainable aviation fuel and 45Z regulations, to the agricultural and environmental benefits of biochar. If the American people fall hook, line and sinker for the narrative that modern human activity is an existential threat to the planet, then Big Government will keep trying to dictate to American families what cars to drive, what foods to eat, where to live and whether energy resources will keep pace with demand. The world needs an all of the above energy strategy to lift people out of poverty and ensure an adequate food supply. The government shouldn’t put up artificial barriers to energy production, from traditional fossil fuels to alternative energy, including wind and solar.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, a Republican, represents Iowa.