This morning I joined St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker and Manatee County Commissioner Joe McClash – both Florida Republicans – at a press conference highlighting a new Environmental Defense/Mason-Dixon survey showing overwhelming GOP support in the state for Gov. Charlie Crist’s recent carbon-cutting proposals. You can see a re-broadcast of the press conference here.
The numbers are impressive. Nearly 60 percent of FL Republicans surveyed believe that global warming will cause adverse effects. More than 75 percent of FL Republicans support Gov. Crist’s desire to reduce global warming emissions to their year 2000 levels within the next ten years. Fully 65 percent of FL Republicans support Gov. Crist’s proposal to cap emissions from major greenhouse gas sources such as utility plants.
I think these findings are positive on two fronts. First, they show that more and more rank-and-file Republican voters feel that climate change is a problem we need to solve. And second, it demonstrates that bold leadership on this issue by our elected Republican leaders isn’t equivalent to touching the third-rail.
And that’s a good thing for our Party. Newt Gingrich recently challenged Republicans to rally behind a “green conservatism” in which we no longer cede the environment to the Democrats and give them a political weapon to use against us, but advocate solutions to environmental problems that are consistent with conservative principles.
I’ve always thought George Schultz pointed Republicans in the right direction 30 years ago when he supported the idea of cap and trade, a market-based solution that actually inspires the development of new clean-energy innovations without new taxes or government spending. President George H.W. Bush showed it could work when he enacted a cap and trade program that successfully reduced acid-rain emissions at a cost that was only 10 percent of what the naysayers predicted.
Cap and trade is an idea whose time appears to have finally come for solving climate change – if Republicans are wise enough to seize the opportunity.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 11:31 am and is filed under Cap and Trade, Climate Change, Politics/Government . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 28th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
This is great news (and I am a Democrat). Kudos to you, Governor Crist, the Republican voters of Florida, and even (it’s hard for me to say this) Newt Gingrich.
However, judging by some of the rabid denialist comments that keep cropping up on this site, you’ve got a lot of convincing to do with your own readers at Terra Rossa. Good luck!