Gas Price Hikes Test The Climate Action Movement

Some environmentalists welcomed the last major surge in gasoline prices in the late 2000s as the kind of push that Americans needed to quit fossil fuels.

This time around, the climate action movement has ― with rare exception ― given up on that idea.

The reasons for that change are twofold. Progressives have concluded that to be viable, climate policy must fuel prosperity. And, perhaps more importantly, rising prices at the pump threaten the political coalition that climate activists need to advance their goals.

The Sunrise Movement's protest in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office...