Seizing The Environmental High Ground

Written by David Jenkins on Wednesday March 4, 2009

The Republican Party has a lengthy record of environmental accomplishments, which stretch back to Abraham Lincoln’s protection of Yosemite Valley in 1864 and include Theodore Roosevelt’s forest and wildlife conservation, Richard Nixon’s creation of the EPA, and Ronald Reagan’s leadership in addressing ozone depletion.

Over the past two decades, however, the party has failed to embrace this history. It has become less conscious of the need for good stewardship and has largely ceded its reputation for safeguarding the environment to the Democrats.

Reclaiming the GOP’s heritage as the party of stewardship and conservation will not be easy. Democrats are politically well-positioned on many environmental issues and stand to get credit for reversing some unpopular Bush Administration decisionsÑbut they are not without vulnerabilities. One issue they are vulnerable on is mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR).

This practice, blasting off the tops of mountains as a cheaper means of accessing coal, leaves average Americans shaking their heads in disbelief. It permanently disfigures mountains, leaves streams buried under the waste debris, and contaminates drinking water aquifers.

MTR has frayed people’s lives in central Appalachia, who must endure the constant noise and dust from blasting, well water that is unfit to use, and a lost environment on which their heritage, traditions and quality of life have been based for generations.

The practice so far has affected more than 450 mountains, mostly in southern West Virginia and southeastern Kentucky, and buried 1,200 miles of streams under the resulting “overburden.” It is hard to imagine a starker example of environmental destruction.

Two high-profile Democrats are the biggest defenders of MTR, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), and Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), president pro tem of the Senate and its longest-serving current member.

Republicans could put the Democrats in a real bind by calling for an end to MTR. Any effort to end MTR mining would be blocked by Chairman Rahall, allowing Republicans to turn the tables on the Democrats and seize the high ground on a key environmental issue.

Such a bold move will undoubtedly be criticized by the coal industry and make a few coal-state Republicans nervous, but the political reality is that traditional coal miners are not big fans of MTRÑSenator McCain handily carried both West Virginia and Kentucky after pledging to end MTRÑand the practice offends most Americans’ stewardship ethic.

Republicans must start staking out more defensible terrain on environmental issues and be a constant and constructive force for stewardship. In doing so, we must draw a positive contrast to Democrats by exposing their shortcomings and exploiting their areas of vulnerability.

Environmentally conscious voters, particularly young people, have come to associate the Republican PartyÑand conservatismÑwith short-sighted opposition to responsible environmental protections. In last year’s election, Barack Obama captured the youth vote by a 2-to-1 margin. Republicans cannot hope to be politically competitive again without getting a larger share of the youth vote.

Americans of all ages expect their leaders to be good stewardsÑand the image of the GOP as shortsighted on the environment is as politically untenable as it is contrary to real conservatism.

Being good stewards of the God-given resources that sustain our lives, our values and our traditions is an original conservative idea that stems directly from the writing of Edmund Burke and is firmly rooted in Biblical teaching.

By aggressively seizing the high ground on issues such as MTR, Republicans can reclaim a positive reputation on environmental issues and broaden the party’s appeal without compromising conservative principles.

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