Remembering
the "Republican
environmentalists" of days past
EDITOR’S
NOTE: Rhode Island once was home to two members of this now extinct species of
Republican environmentalist: Claudia Schneider,
former US Representative who now lives in Colorado, and former Senator and
Governor Lincoln Chafee who just moved to Wyoming. – Will Collette
The
popular young history professor cut a profile that spanned generations. Add a
jaunty fedora and a sleeve or two of ink to the horn-rimmed glasses, wavy mane
and boxcar-sized sideburns and he could well be a 2000's slacker instead of a
1970's tree hugger.
Newton
Leroy Gingrich, Ph.D. (left), taught the first environmental studies courses at his
school. He advised the campus Sierra Club chapter and successfully raised hell
against a proposed dam on the Flint River. And he aspired beyond the modest
campus of West Georgia College.
By
1978, Gingrich was elected to Congress on his second try. Ronald Reagan's
landslide victory in 1980 helped inspire the young Congressman's sharp turn
away from green politics.
In
1995, he became Speaker of the House and shortly after, invented the modern
government shutdown, and led a rightist rebellion that held green politics to
be in extremely bad taste. Gingrich continued sporadic advocacy for
unobjectionable causes, like saving Africa's gorillas.
His
Congressional career imploded after the failed bid to oust President Bill
Clinton. In 2007, he appeared in an ad beside new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
to call for action on climate change. He later disowned the ad.
Newt
Gingrich and his renunciation of environmental values is not a political
exception. In the last 40 years, anti-environmental rhetoric and policies have
swept the Republican Party:
In 1988, Presidential hopeful George H.W. Bush swept into office while pledging to be "the environmental president." Four short years later, he ridiculed Al Gore, running for VP on the rival ticket as "Ozone Man."
Mitt
Romney enacted a forward-thinking Climate Action Plan while Massachusetts
governor, then backed off prior to
his 2012 Presidential run. Both Lindsey Graham and his Senate mentor, the late
John McCain, also cooled on warming.
Even
Sarah Palin -- Sarah Palin! -- recognized Alaska's unique
vulnerabilities by convening a "Climate Change Sub-Cabinet"
during her half-term as Governor. The Sub-Cabinet vanished like permafrost as
Palin advanced to national fame in politics and reality TV.
The
annual Congressional Scorecard published by the League of Conservation Votersprovides
a running performance record for key environment and energy legislation.
In 1980, no Republican House members bottomed out with an LCV score of zero. For 2017, the latest available complete numbers, LCV awarded zeroes to more than two dozen Republican House members.
In 1980, no Republican House members bottomed out with an LCV score of zero. For 2017, the latest available complete numbers, LCV awarded zeroes to more than two dozen Republican House members.
Republicans
who stuck by their environmental guns were summarily disarmed.
Though LCV gave him a lifetime score of only 26 percent, South Carolina Congressman Bob Inglis talked a great climate game until losing a primary battle to prosecutor Trey Gowdy in 2010. Gowdy pulled a 3 percent lifetime LCV score, but is best known for enmeshing Hillary Clinton in years of Benghazi hearings.
Though LCV gave him a lifetime score of only 26 percent, South Carolina Congressman Bob Inglis talked a great climate game until losing a primary battle to prosecutor Trey Gowdy in 2010. Gowdy pulled a 3 percent lifetime LCV score, but is best known for enmeshing Hillary Clinton in years of Benghazi hearings.
"The
most enduring heresy I committed was saying that climate change is real,"
Inglis told PBS FRONTLINE.
Sherwood
Boehlert championed acid rain and fuel efficiency legislation for 12 terms from
his Utica, NY-based Congressional seat, compiling a lifetime score of 78
percent from the League of Conservation Voters. Claudia Tenney
was Utica's most recent rep, earning 6 percent from the LCV. She was unseated
the 2018 Democratic wave.
Christie
Whitman, the first EPA Administrator for George W. Bush, said she was routinely
bigfooted by Vice President Dick Cheney on climate and environment issues. She
quit after two years, accusing the Bush Administration of "flipping the bird" at
the EPA.
Bird-flipping
seems almost quaint. President Trump brings in an EPA regime overtly hostile to
the Agency's founding purpose and mission.
An
agency founded, by the way, by Republican Richard Nixon.
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