|
|
 |
|
| Opportunities & Exposures: Environment |
Green Elephants
Carolin H. Atchison
10/01/2005
|
Until the 1970s, the Republican Party had a proud history of conservation. Both
Theodore Roosevelt and Richard Nixon were environmentally conscious presidents
who left formidable legacies. Things changed in 1981, when President Reagan
appointed James Watt as secretary of the interior. Watt began a legacy of a
different sort when he announced, “We will mine more, drill more, cut more
timber”—words that resonate through the halls of Republican-controlled
Washington today.
This shift has not been lost on voters. Last year, only 18
percent of respondents to an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll said they trusted
Republicans to do a better job of protecting the environment. (Democrats
garnered a 51 percent share.) While the policies of the Bush administration and
the current Republican Congress may fully justify such findings, Republican
actions on a local level tell a different story. In the November 2004 election,
local conservation measures in Republican-dominated states did surprisingly
well. For example, in Lake County, Fla., 60 percent of the voters chose to
reelect the president, while 71 percent voted in favor of a $36 million bond to
preserve drinking water sources, natural areas, parks and trails.
These
results confirmed what conservationists working on a local level know: Contrary
to their slash-and-burn reputation on environmental issues, many Republicans
care as much as their Democratic counterparts about preserving the quality of
life in their communities. Their resistance to anonymous, seemingly dictatorial
national environmental directives is often grounded in their preference for
small government that operates close to the people. For them, environmental
policies work best when anchored in the principles of local control, fiscal
fairness and a willingness to collaborate and cooperate with opponents.
Such
principles are not just a smoke screen designed to obscure other agendas. They
are actually facilitating the creation of environmental solutions nationwide. In
California, for example, two state assemblymen, Tim Leslie, a conservative
Republican from Tahoe City, and John Laird, a liberal Democrat from Santa Cruz,
worked together to create the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, the state’s largest
environmental conservancy, to address urban sprawl. Leslie says this
forward-thinking organization endows Sierra residents with unprecedented levels
of control. Instead of purchasing land outright, the conservancy makes grants to
local governments and nonprofit organizations for conservation, recreational
opportunities and economic growth. Six of its 13 voting board members consist of
local county supervisors.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
