For Conservatives it’s Not Difficult Being Green

Once again, the Republican Party faces a time for choosing. These choices on important issues are becoming more numerous as the days tick down toward the 2008 presidential election and also more opportunistic as the party finds itself in the minority in both houses of Congress. We’re already seeing the impact of abortion on the presidential campaign some 18 months before the convention will chose a nominee who may or may not be pro-choice. The Democrats have been hammering home the issue of the environment and thus far have succeeded in defining the issue on their terms. So today, Republicans have a choice as to how to combat the left on the environment and global climate change: they can either continue to claim that global warming is a myth (as the pack of talk radio hosts does) and not offer any solutions of their own or they can offer a genuine alternative to what Czech President Vaclav Klaus has called the greatest threat to human freedom since communism (and he would know!).

If you follow what the Democrats have been saying since Al Gore was putting voters to sleep instead of moviegoers, the Earth is warming at an uncontrollable and unnatural rate because of yuppies driving SUV’s. Therefore, the only possible solution to keep the seas from drowning Florida (which may or may not be such a bad idea) is to drastically change our economy and transform human habits and human nature. Tomorrow’s May Day demonstrations should remind us all how similar left-wing experiments in social engineering turned out. Conservatives are right to denounce proposals like limiting ourselves to one square of toilet paper per trip as draconian and without any basis in reality (as it turned out, it was), but so far they haven’t been offering any alternatives. They have been on this issue as they criticized Democrats three years ago of being on every other issue. They have done nothing but oppose and attack while offering no ideas of their own. This has allowed liberals to characterize Republicans as against the environment which is making it easier for them to advance their radical agenda.

Instead, Republicans can offer a package of common sense policies which balance environmental stewardship with preserving human freedom. There are simple things every one of us can do that can both save the planet and save money that don’t require increasingly ridiculous regulation and bureaucracy. Simply encouraging wiser consumer choices would not only resonate better with the American people than would finger-wagging but would also promote a sound environmental policy without destroying the market economy. If consumers realized, for example, that compact fluorescent light bulbs last longer and use less energy than incandescent bulbs (and cost a lot less in the long run), a ban would not be necessary. Homeowners are already able to receive a tax incentive for replacing their old furnaces with more efficient models. Perhaps most importantly, Republicans need to champion an energy policy that weans Americans off oil instead of taking their cars away from them. Government can cooperate with energy companies instead of penalizing them and come up with alternative sources of fuel that allow Americans to keep the cars they love and depend on.

Conservatives have a real opportunity to redefine the entire debate on climate change itself. Instead of simply denying it exists and dismissing their claims as Chicken Little hysteria, conservatives can fight the intellectual dishonesty of the left and identify what really is at issue: who or what is causing global climate change and which common sense policies should be implemented to best deal with it. To be perfectly clear, the Kyoto Protocol is NOT in any way rooted in common sense. The United States Senate knew how ridiculous the treaty was in 1997 when they voted 95-0 to not merely reject it but to not even consider it. Other socialist schemes such as carbon trading simply do not work at reducing emissions but change who is emitting them. The ozone doesn’t care which smokestack the pollution comes from, but the global left doesn’t realize this either. Conservatives have a real shot in the next year and a half to take on the left on the environment and offer their own solutions. To do otherwise is to invite toilet paper rations.