Bipartisanship on the environment

Who's stopping it?

Posted by David Roberts at 2:25 PM on 16 Jul 2007

Read more about: politics | environmental movement | legislation

You hear a lot, from well-meaning Republican environmentalists of the sort you find on this site, or this one, or this one, that we'll "never make any progress" on the environment until it becomes a bipartisan issue. Strangely, this scolding isn't directed at the conservative movement, which has for decades obstructed any action dedicated to solving environmental problems. It's directed instead at environmentalists who identify with the progressive movement, which has been pushing for action.

Strange.

I bring this up because energy and climate legislation is a hot topic these days, and several bills are winding their way through Congress. Possible progress, right? Only the Republican minority has -- again, explicitly -- vowed to block, um, everything. Says Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND):

I had a Republican colleague tell me it is the Republican strategy to try to prevent any accomplishment of the Democratic Congress. That is set in their caucus openly and directly that they don't intend to allow Democrats to have any legislative successes, and they intend to do it by repeated filibuster.

So, yeah, I agree, the environment needs to become a bipartisan issue. But who's preventing that from happening?

(via TP)

For story: Bipartisanship on the environment
18 Comments | Post a Comment

Code words

What they really mean is that environmental protection has to be divorced from a social/economic equity agenda.

by GreenEngineer at 4:40 PM on 16 Jul 2007

The best way to get the right onboard....

is to speak market economics- they want free markets, good- no more coal, oil, gas, agriculture, fishing, or nuclear subsidies. They believe in responsibility, good, then polluters pay for ALL of their pollution. They believe in empowering individuals, good, then make available detailed pollution data on all industries to the public.

You get the point. The list goes on.....

J.S. htt://voicesofreason.info

by jscorse at 5:56 PM on 16 Jul 2007

prevent accomplishment of the Dem Congress

This is not news. They shriek about letting our mythical "free market" fix everything, then pass pro-monopoly, anti competitive legislation. They shriek about how corrupt and ineffectual government is and then get elected and prove it.

Par for the course.

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act!" -- George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair)

by yoder at 8:14 PM on 16 Jul 2007

Phony conservatism

In reality our so called conservatives believe in capitalism for thee, but not for me. If you mention subsidies for corporations, they are right there, drooling like Dr. Pavlov's pups. If they get themselves in a jam, and need a bail out who do they call, The Club for Growth? The Competitive Enterprise Institute? No way, they run to the public sector.

We don't have a real conservative movement in this country. We have a statist reactionary movement that acts as an errand boy and shill for its corporate pay masters.

I slug it out with conservatives on another message board. I have referred some of the more rational ones, who you can tell sincerely care about the environment, to Republicans for Environmental Protection. But within GOP politics they are the fringe of the fringe. For most conservatives today in America, a deep hostility to environmentalism is a basic requirement for right wing political correctness. Environmentalists in their world, are what communists were a generation ago.

Randy Cunningham

Randy Cunningham

by randino at 5:45 AM on 17 Jul 2007

partisan

It's partisan politics, isn't it. Say that something ought to be a bipartisan topic, then refuse to act on the issue, and then you can throw bombs at it b/c it's a partisan issue of the other side.

The US is in need of a third and a fourth political party. And instant runoff voting.

The Orion Grassroots Network: supporting grassroots groups working for conservation, justice, & more

by Erik Hoffner at 6:40 AM on 17 Jul 2007

Indeed

Conservatives have it in their minds that global warming itself is a liberal issue, and worth being dismissed. I'm not just talking about Dr. Carmona's testimony before Congress last week, either. They honestly think that skepticism towards global warming is an actual conservative political position.

by ebaerren at 7:03 AM on 17 Jul 2007

Bills Aren't Solutions

Once again in typical Grist fashion, you muddle policy with theory.

You assume that if a bill says "Eco-Green Bill for Curing Global Warming" that it will actually do that and that anyone who opposes it, because it might just be a pork barrel for Senator Obama's corn industry is a Big Bad Republican.

by jabailo at 9:03 AM on 17 Jul 2007

More Myopia

Hey, all:

Just the title here demonstrates the myopia. This is not merely a "bipartisan" matter, it is and has been a nonpartisan, "multipartisan", universal matter. Using issues for partisan gains is their practice, which we foolishly fall into, and then acquiesce to.

Question: "...the environment needs to become a bipartisan issue. But who's preventing that from happening?"

Answer: Restrictive myopic thinking and language, and the people who don't know enough to recognize their ignorance.

We can do better. We must do better. The only solution is real change, real improvement, real reform in Congress and the Presidency in November 2008.

David
Sustainability For Life

Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun!

by SustainableGreen at 9:48 AM on 17 Jul 2007

Those poor, misunderstood Republicans.

Recent history backs up many, if not all, assertions that our "friends across the isle" would rather be filleted with a rusty butter knife than cooperate and compromise. Their strategy thus far has been

When in control of Congress, kick the opposition in the teeth while shaking their hand and smiling. Do whatever it takes to get your legislation through and destroy anyone who opposes you.
When not in control of Congress, throw tantrums that would make a spoiled toddler blush, stall, whine, stall, complain, stall, block progress at any cost, stall and then for good measure, stall.

Even though there are a few Republicans who do work occasionally with others, they are the minority and they do not get far in the current Republican atmosphere before suffocating.

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act!" -- George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair)

by yoder at 10:05 AM on 17 Jul 2007
[ Parent ]

Pot Calls Kettle Black

Let me get this straight: David writes a post noting (with some surprise) that Republican environmentalists blame progressive-minded folk like us for the lack of bipartisanship in environmentalism. He suggests that it is, in fact, Republicans' fault. Some comments that follow contain a variation on the theme: "Well, this just goes to show how impossible, infuriating, and morally bankrupt those hypocrite Republicans are."

So, by engaging in an orgy of partisan insult-slinging and some good, old fashioned finger-pointing, we are proving that we are, contrary to what those "well-meaning Republicans" say, the most cooperative and the least to blame for the environmental movement's lack of bipartisanship. That's a good one.

by exousiai at 11:20 AM on 17 Jul 2007

to some extent

You're right to some extent, exousiai...but the topic here is about how Republicans are dragging their feet on climate. Name some other issues that Dems drag their feet on, and it's the same thing reversed.

Gridlock is the most bipartisan phenomena on the Hill, and that's why I'd like to see more party choices than just Dems and Dose. I'm a registered Green, but that isn't doing the trick, either.

The Orion Grassroots Network: supporting grassroots groups working for conservation, justice, & more

by Erik Hoffner at 11:35 AM on 17 Jul 2007
[ Parent ]

No

Nothing the Dems are doing, or did while they were in the minority, is parallel to a stated parliamentary policy of filibustering every bill with the express intention of denying the other party political victories. I'm not saying they are heroes, or even effective, but at no point have they adopted a deliberate policy of f*cking the legislative process at every opportunity for purely partisan reasons.

And -- to point out the thuddingly obvious -- decrying that policy is not the "same" as that policy. It is not the "other side" of that policy, or parallel to that policy in any way. Both sides don't do it. Only Republicans do this. The inability of progressives to get past their faux-Solomonic "everyone does it" tic is astounding to me.

grist.org

by David Roberts at 12:10 PM on 17 Jul 2007

partisan

The environment being seen as an issue by (ahem) both parties? How about starting by pushing for a party that isn't Business Loyalist Party #1 or Business Loyalist Party #2, and get at the very least one other party involved. It doesn't even have to be the "Green Party."

More importantly, stop with all the focus on global warming! It's as if environmentalism were a one-issue ideology!!! As if global warming is the only threat to the health of the earth, and if you don't believe in it or don't see it as a crisis, you aren't a real environmentalist!

Lastly: get out the corruption. That simple. Get it out.

by zacaroni at 12:26 PM on 17 Jul 2007

RE: No

Well gee, thanks, I see everything differently now. Thanks for straightening me out.

The Orion Grassroots Network: supporting grassroots groups working for conservation, justice, & more

by Erik Hoffner at 1:46 PM on 17 Jul 2007
[ Parent ]

"an orgy of partisan insult-slinging"

I like that comment. I don't agree with it, but I like it.

When you see two people in prison, one who tortured and killed a half a dozen people and one who smoked some pot and got caught, do you see them as equally bad? Not everything in life can be balanced. Mainstream media has been trying to do that for the past 6 years and has failed miserably. Just because there are two sides to an issue does not mean they are equal. Usually one side is more right than the other and one side is more wrong than the other.

The Republican party has been engaging in acts that are morally, ethically and legally reprehensible. And for far too long there have been very few willing to point this out for fear of being labeled a "terrorist" or a "terrorist sympathizer". That in and of itself makes me want to vomit on Cheney's shoes, but they used that fear as a tool and a reason to take away rights and freedoms that we "USED" to hold dear. Now if it was the Democratic party doing this you would be able to take each and every one of my posts and replace Republican with Democratic, but it is not the Democratic party doing this.

The Democrats do desperately need to be belittled, ridiculed and yelled at, but for very different reasons, which are not being discussed here.

This orgy of partisan insult slinging is just fed up Americans telling the Republicans what they think of them.

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act!" -- George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair)

by yoder at 5:33 AM on 18 Jul 2007

Clarification

I agree with many of the comments here. I take issue, however, with with the conclusion of the original post: that Republicans are entirely responsible and we progressives entirely blameless for any current lack of bipartisanship (as I interpreted the closing snarky question "who's preventing that from happening?" to imply). I don't think its revolutionary to suggest that a lot of people/circumstances are preventing it from happening. One of those circumstances is that Democrats (and Republicans) tend to vilify the opposing side, as shown here. Now, before I am misunderstood, that doesn't mean I think what Dems are doing is JUST LIKE or AS BAD AS a Republican policy of obstruction in Congress, just that I think it precludes the self-congratulatory conclusion that they are the sole cause of any lack of bipartisanship on the environment.

by exousiai at 7:03 AM on 18 Jul 2007

Aw, C'mon!!

Hey, all:

Can't anyone tell, we are just taking the endless, stupid Congressional bar fight out into the streets? Great distraction. The Hatfield and McCoys continue from generation to generation and venue to venue. Trailer park to trailer park and gang to gang. Playground to playground. Meanwhile they continue to fuck us over. Proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that we don't or can't LEARN a goddam thing.

View all of these politicians as rapacious clowns, regardless of party. This is the easiest and most accurate and honest way to analyze them.

If they have ANY environmental conscience or positive record, consider keeping them in office. Otherwise, kick their asses out onto the street. Of course, they will just get a job one rung down the scum ladder and become a lobbyist, so there is no need for pity.

Find genuine responsive progressives to help get elected. Turn the country around in 2008.

And stop the goddam pissing contest. It gets us nowhere.

David
Sustainability For Life

Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun!

by SustainableGreen at 8:05 AM on 18 Jul 2007

Some freaky stuff

California wants their greenhouse waiver now!
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/07/rep-inslee-intr.h ...

National Petroleum Council promotes better fuel economy.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/07/national-petrol.h ...

Another EPRI study on PHEVs says that they are a good idea
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/07/epri-nrdc-studi.h ...

China isn't going to do grain ethanol.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/07/china-wont-use-.h ...

Toyota making some noise on plugins
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/07/toyota-to-obtai.h ...

Vatican City the first country to offset all of it's emmisions.
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/07/19/the-first-country ...

-David Ahlport

by GreyFlcn at 11:42 AM on 19 Jul 2007

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