Republicans for Environmental Protection

Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP), was founded in 1995 to resurrect the GOP's great conservation tradition and to restore natural resource conservation and sound environmental protection as fundamental elements of the Republican Party's vision for America.

REP are conservatives who share a deep concern for the environment.They know that a healthy environment and a sound economy are both essential to the nations prosperity. They believe that by working together, Americans can preserve the environment and develop the economy for current and future generations.

The REP shares common environmental priorities including heathy food, clean air and water. They recognize the importance of clean, efficient businesses and industries and they support strong, results-oriented enforcement of environmental laws.

REP would like to see funding of natural resource stewardship and environmental protection, protection of national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, wild lands and waters. They would also like to see effective legal protection for threatened and endangered plants and animals in their native habitats.

Despite the anti-science stance of many Republicans, national security issues and changing global markets will make climate change denial increasingly untenable.

When Republicans come to terms with the science on climate change, the REP illustrates that there is a ready-made ideological base for conservatives who adopt green values and concerns.


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GOP's Environmental Roots

Great GOP leaders of the past fought to save natural treasures, signed landmark environmental-protection laws, and established many of the environmental policies we take for granted today.

Teddy Roosevelt, established America's unmatched system of wildlife refuges and national parks. Barry Goldwater, was the father of conservatism, and a lifelong conservationist.

Richard Nixon understood the environment’s importance to the public. Richard Nixon signed the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and also established the Environmental Protection Agency.

Ronald Reagan signed a treaty to protect the upper atmosphere’s protective ozone layer from chemical emissions in 1987. The treaty was the most significant international environmental agreement ever negotiated.

As Ronald Reagan said, “What is a conservative, after all, but one who conserves. We want to protect and conserve the land on which we live – our countryside, our rivers and mountains, our plains and meadows and forests. This is our patrimony. This is what we leave to our children. And our great moral responsibility is to leave it better than we found it.”

The Bi-partisan efforts of previous decades succeeded in putting an end to environmental catastrophes like burning rivers, toxic waste dumps and DDT.

Modern day Republicans have no special exemption from polluted air and contaminated water. They would do well to remember the past and the environmental legacies of some of their finest leaders.


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Conservatism is Green

It is often thought that conservatism and green are mutually exclusive, but this is not the case. Jim DiPeso, REP Vice President for Policy and Communications said, "the environment is not a partisan issue. Good stewardship is consistent with core conservative values, values that date back to Edmund Burke, the founder of modern conservatism. It’s about keeping America strong and leaving future generations a healthy environment and the freedom to make their own choices."

Many conservatives understand that US dependence on oil is a strategic liability. This is why many conservatives understand the need to diversify the nation's energy portfolio. That includes renewables and efficiency. An efficient energy policy means getting the most value out of every dollar we spend on energy. Nothing could be more conservative.

There are other elements of green that are consistent with conservatism. Green Capitalism is big and getting bigger, cleantech in particular is flourishing and conservatives are increasingly seeing the value of this multi-trillion dollar trend.

Conservatives value personal responsibility and it is only logical that this should extend to the things we do to this planet and the life forms that live here.

Continued alliance with those who pollute our planet and kill life wantonly and without regard to how it effects the entire ecosystem, is not viable both ecologically and politically.

Nothing is more conservative than conservation. True conservatives should safeguard the resources on which the health, recreation, and economic prosperity of present and future Americans depend. There is nothing conservative—and certainly nothing wise—in squandering our energy, clean air and water, beloved landscapes, wildlife, wilderness, wetlands, and other natural treasures.

Going green is a matter of survival which is why true conservatives, conserve the environment.


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Tea Party Bolsters Republican Commitment to Obstructionism

First and foremost, the Republican party demands loyalty to their strategy of obstructionism. The influx of Tea Party candidates has only engrained this idea more deeply into GOP political strategy.

Even before the Tea Party takeover, Republicans consistently refused to work with Democrats, even when dealing with approaches that Republicans either authored or previously supported.

The addition of the Tea Party to the Republican fold has renewed conservative zeal to oust President Obama and anyone who works with him.

Once dismissed as a fringe party, the Tea Party has taken control of mainstream conservatism and it is succeeding in moving America to the right.

The Tea Party has successfully eliminated candidates that did not move far enough or fast enough. Tea Party candidates have already defeated credible Republicans like Robert Bennett in Utah and Mike Castle in Delaware.

The Tea Party is behind efforts to politically exterminate Rebublicans who break ranks and work with the Democrats. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) made the mistake of supporting President Obama’s stimulus bill and she was the only Republican to commit the cardinal sin of voting for his healthcare reform bill in the Senate Finance Committee. Now the Tea Party has her in the cross-hairs and plans have already been announced to challenge Snowe from within in 2012.

The Republican plan is to continue to resist all efforts that could move America forward and then blame the Democrats for their inability to get things done. Democrats were betting that Americans would see the blatent partisanship by the midterms, but judging by the polls it looks as though they may lose this bet.

The Tea Party has reinvigorated the Republican strategy of obstructionism. They also encourage other unsightly practices that are harmful to America, chief amongst them is the coordinated campaign of climate change denial.

America should be deeply concerned about the Tea Party, and even Republicans have reason to fear. Although there is increased interest in conservative politics, the Tea Party has shown it is not above cannibalism.

Although Republicans initially inspired the kind of zeal we see personified in Tea Party candidates, some are no doubt wondering what kind of monster they helped to create.


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