Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, who played a leading role in shaping Democrats’ trademark 2022 climate law, was talking about energy affordability before it became a buzzword.
Now, Smith is advising Democrats on lessons learned from their struggles selling and implementing the Inflation Reduction Act as senators negotiate with Republicans on permitting.
“I wanted to change the conversation around clean energy and climate from the doom-and-gloom ‘We’re all going to die, the planet is going to burn’ to a conversation that was based on affordability and competitiveness and innovation,” Smith told POLITICO in a recent sit-down interview, where she reflected on her legacy as the single-term senator gets set to retire at the end of this year to spend time with family.
Smith, colleagues say, used her unique position as a clean energy champion from the Midwest who speaks the language of rural Americans to help convince retired Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin to get on board with what became the IRA.
