January, 2010
Republicans Know a Thing or Two About Going Green, Too
Elizabeth Hebeler
Historically, the Republican Party has been environmentally conscious. Even as far back as 1906 Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act setting aside thousands of miles of land for conservation. Nixon is the reason we have the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Many other Republican presidents and representatives can be thanked for protecting our environment while passing legislation that furthers our traditional conservative ideals. Now that “Going Green” is popular – politicians on both sides are touting their efforts.
The House of Representatives recently passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 and in mid-September the Senate will have their turn to debate. The goal of the bill is “to create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution, and transition to a clean energy economy” (H.R. 2998). By providing a timeline for increasing company efficiency through building practices, fuel efficient vehicles, and limiting energy consumption, the government hopes to lead the U.S. to a proficient change in impacting our environment. One criticism of the bill includes that it is a cap n trade variant, setting a higher emissions reduction plan than President Barack Obama originally asked for. The bill would greatly affect our economy by forcing American citizens and businesses to come up with an excessive amount of money in a short period of time in order to meet energy reduction standards. According to the House Roll Call, only 8 Republicans supported the bill in the House and were largely unsuccessful in adding their amendments to the debate.
Based on information the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center has gathered, the United States is home to about 4.6 percent of the world's population and attributes to over 20 percent of the world's carbon-dioxide emissions. Carbon emissions are often linked with greenhouse gases and they are natural byproducts of the earth; however, our increasing emissions have made the earth warmer. A warmer earth leads to the melting of ice caps, a destruction of natural ecosystems, an increase in endangered species, more cases of extreme weather, and additional human deaths by heat related illness. That's solely for CO2's effect! Can you imagine the combination of all the other waste and pollution America creates even in a single day?
Let's put conservative back in conservation and let our care for the environment and concern for our country's environmental well being be heard! The planet is changing, and we can either make that a positive change or a negative change. You can help future generations by:
-Supporting the government in its effort to improve our efficiency while limiting its control on the issue by voting for representatives who share this view
-Contacting representatives to let your opinions be known
-Supporting businesses that are investing in a ‘greener' way of building and running stores
-Recycling and watching your consumption