comments_image -

Environment? What Environment?

There's been no mention at the Republican convention of natural resource conservation, or energy, forests, water, oil, oceans, chemical contamination or the environmental causes of disease.
 
 
LIKE THIS ARTICLE ?
Join our mailing list:

Sign up to stay up to date on the latest headlines via email.

 
 
 
 

None of the speeches made in New York have addressed, or even mentioned, the environment. First Lady Laura Bush spoke about watching her husband "wrestling with these agonizing decisions that would have such profound consequence for so many lives and for the future of our world."

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recalled coming to the United States from Austria and becoming a Republican after listening to President Richard Nixon speak because he "sounded more like a breath of fresh air."

Education Secretary Rod Paige defended the No Child Left Behind program under which, he said, "States, not Washington, set the standards. Schools that need assistance get assistance."

Opening the convention on Monday night, Senator John McCain spoke of the necessity of war in Iraq. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D. spoke of medicine and drugs and denigrated trial lawyers.

But there was no mention of natural resource conservation, or energy, forests, water, oil, oceans, chemical contamination or the environmental causes of disease.

The Republican Party platform, approved by the convention on Monday, includes several statements of environmental policy most related to the supply of energy – support for drilling in the Arctic, for a revival of the nuclear power industry, for clean coal and hydrogen research.

It hails the record of President George W. Bush in "incorporating appropriate labor and environmental concerns into U.S. trade negotiations," and facing with China "shared health and environmental threats, such as the threat of HIV/AIDS, SARS, and other infectious diseases...."

It upholds the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, which declares "private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation." This clause has been used to require compensation when an environmental regulation reduces the value of property or makes any part of a parcel of property unusable. "We oppose efforts to diminish the rights of private citizens to the land they own," the platform states.

The platform urges Congress to pass the President's energy bill, which "includes over 100 recommendations, nearly half of which addressed renewable energy, energy efficiency, and conservation." The policy statement warns that "Recent electricity blackouts, the California energy crisis, natural gas and oil price spikes, and high gasoline prices remind us that only a comprehensive energy policy will produce energy stability for America's families and businesses."

The future of energy lies in clean coal research and development and President Bush's Clear Skies Initiative which "would create a $50 billion private market to deploy these clean coal technologies," the Republican platform says.

The policy statement supports FutureGen, a $1 billion initiative to build the world's first zero-emissions fossil fuel plant that integrates carbon sequestration and hydrogen production research. A hydrogen economy would be of "enormous benefit" and put the United States on "the cutting edge of energy technology," the platform says.

The FreedomCar Partnership and Hydrogen Fuel Initiative include $1.7 billion over five years to begin building hydrogen cars and the infrastructure to support them is part of this platform plank.

Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should move ahead immediately using "sophisticated technologies," says the Republican platform.

"Our Party continues to support energy development in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, holds as much as 16 billion barrels of oil – enough to replace oil imports from Saudi Arabia for nearly 20 years. The drilling footprint can be confined to just 2,000 acres (the entire refuge contains 19 million acres), about the size of Washington's Dulles Airport, on ice roads that melt away in the summer, leaving little trace of human intervention. We have already wasted precious time."

submit to reddit

-
Email
Print
Share
LIKED THIS ARTICLE? JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST
Stay up to date with the latest AlterNet headlines via email
Alternet Special Coverage - Occupy Wall Street
Advertisement
Most Read
Most Emailed
Most Discussed
On REDDIT
On DIGG
 
loading most read content ..
Advertisement
Occupy Protesters Mic-Check Palin During CPAC Speech

By Adele M. Stan | AlterNet

 
 
Apple, Accustomed to Profits and Praise, Faces Outcry for Labor Practices at Chinese Factories

By Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez | Democracy Now!

 
 
Could Santorum Actually Beat Romney? And Would the Obama Campaign be Ready?

By Steve M. | Booman Tribune

 
 
Bill Moyers: The Economy Has Been Engineered to Screw Over Millennials (With an AlterNet Shoutout!)

By Staff | AlterNet

 
 
Maher: Conservatives Are the Ones Dividing the Country

By Sarah Seltzer | AlterNet

 
 
In Kansas, Is Catholic Church Trying to Destroy A Victim's Advocates Organization?

By Julie Cain | Ms. Magazine Blog

 
 
Obama vs. the Concern Trolls on Nonsense "Religious Liberty" Issue

By Digby | Hullabaloo

 
 
At CPAC, Santorum Surges Despite Idiotic Claims; Romney Poses as 'Severe' Conservative; Gingrich Makes War on GOP

By Adele M. Stan | AlterNet

 
 
Wisconsin's Gov. Walker Appeals to CPAC Crowd for Help Fending Off Recall

By Adele M. Stan | AlterNet

 
 
In Birth Control Debate, Cable News Disproportionately Asked Men What They Thought of Women's Health

By Faiz Shakir and Adam Peck | Think Progress

 
 
 
Reverend Billy Talen
 
 
 
loading ...
POWERED BY DIGG'S USERS
 
[ page served from web 1 ]