Green is this season’s color for many GOP governors and candidates

By Lagan Sebert

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Today) 8/25/07 – A growing number of GOP governors and presidential candidates are making the Green Scene to win support in traditionally Democratic states. Last September, one of the most popular Republican politicians, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, signed a groundbreaking law to reduce California carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent more by 2050. The move politically revived Schwarzenegger at a time when his popularity was slipping in his home state.

The Governator has since led a growing number of Republicans who have championed pro-environmental issues and found political running room.

“Bipartisan focus on climate change and renewable energy is new and represents progress,” said American University professor of environmental politics Dr. Bob Musil. “It started with Republican governors with large blue contingents supporting global warming policy,” he said, noting Republican governors have passed energy conservation legislation in Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, Florida and of course, California, home of so many green schemes and activists.

Many of those populous states have early primaries in late January and early February when the lion’s share of electoral votes will be decided, making green a near-mandatory color in every candidate’s political wardrobe.

Now in the 2008 presidential race Democrats no longer own the issue of alternative energy. With skyrocketing oil prices, increased concern over global warming and Republican governors leading the way in conservation policy, alternative energy has come to the forefront of the Republican presidential debate.

Republican candidates Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jim Gilmore and Mike Huckabee have all placed energy independence high on their agendas and supported alternative energies.

“The Environment is playing a bigger role in these elections for both Republicans

and Democrats. The renewable energy issue is getting an examination that it hasn’t had,”

said Christine Todd Whitman, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Bush. Energy independence is an old idea for both Republicans and Democrats, but the idea of using alternative energies such as solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels, and others to supplant coal and oil has historically been a Democratic initiative.

“GOP Presidents tend to focus on new domestic sources of oil and, like President Bush, pay lip service to other forms [of energy],” said presidential analyst and professor of political science, Michael Nelson.

Since 2004 crude oil prices have doubled and imports have remained about the same, according to the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Energy Department.

“Energy independence [is something] which we need as a matter of national security…we should be supporting all the alternatives. We need a project similar to putting a man on the moon,” said Giuliani during a CNN debate earlier this year.

“Of course we ought to be investing in alternate energy sources,” McCain echoed during the same debate. Romney openly agreed and later said, “We can all agree that alternative energy sources will be good for the planet,” during a speech.

Public pressure is coming to bear as a steady beat of high-profile Green campaigns has reached the voters. Al Gore has led a publicity campaign to increase awareness of global warming, while popular entertainers such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Kiefer Sutherland, Jack Johnson, Robert Redford and Carmen Diaz have encouraged support for conservation initiatives.

“We have proven that Republicans can, in fact, protect the environment,” said Schwarzenegger at the July 2007, “Serve to Preserve” Florida Summit on Global Climate Change, where another Republican, Gov. Charlie Crist, joined California in imposing conservation policies to reduce greenhouse gasses in Florida.

“I am very proud to see another governor wanting to join California and the growing number of states who are not waiting for Washington to lead on this issue,” said Governor Schwarzenegger during the summit.

Though Schwarzenegger has led a greening trend among Republican governors, in Washington, Republicans have not scored well with environmental organizations.

The League of Conservation Voters is an independent organization that has tracked environmental voting records of politicians since 1970 with a 0 to 100 ranking based on pro-environmental voting.

The party differences are drastic. In 2006 LCV rated Senate Democratic leadership at 76 percent and Republican leadership at 9 percent in their National Environmental Scorecard. The same report rated House Democratic leadership at 100 percent and the Republican leadership at 8 percent.

Still, the GOP is quick to call itself a leader on the topic. “The environment is a Republican issue. It was Teddy Roosevelt who created the national parks and it was Richard Nixon who created the EPA,” said Whitman.

News reports and political cartoons have long feasted on what they say is the Bush administration’s sacrifice of the environment in the name of business interests.

“Everyone understands that reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions is not cheap. Legislation must be thoughtfully crafted and we have to have the right technology in place,” said Jim Owen, a spokesman for the Edison Electrical Institute.

Surveys indicate politicians currently face more pressure from both sides of the aisle to act on issues such as climate change and renewable energy. In an ABC poll conducted this April, 70 percent said government should do more than it’s doing now to try to deal with global warming.

Three Gallup Polls since 2004 show the percentage of Americans who “worry a great deal” about environmental issues has increased for all ten environmental issues polled since 2004.

“Republican candidates have responded to the growing level of concern for energy and environmental issues. From three-dollar gallons of gas to more favorable economics for renewable energies, we need to change direction on the way that we use and produce energy,” said Jim DiPeso, Policy Director for Republicans for Environmental Protection.

Democratic leadership in both the House of Representatives and the Senate have recently passed energy legislation to increase energy conservation standards, remove $16 billion in tax incentives from oil and gas industries, and require states to produce 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources such as solar, geothermal and wind production.

“We are doing a lot of this 30 years late. The political will has not been there on a consistent basis…We are now twice as dependent on foreign oil as a percent as we were 30 years ago,” said Jim Cooper, D-Tenn.

Due in part to Schwarzenegger and other prominent Californians’ leadership it has become politically unrealistic for Republican and Democrats alike to ignore environmental issues in national politics.