Red, Green, and Blue

While most of the big events at the Republican National Convention were shelved Monday in deference to hurricane Gustav, there was still plenty of work to be done putting the final touches on the party’s platform, which they did. While there were few bold new propositions in the platform, the Platform Committee did attempt to narrow some of the gaps between traditional Republican positions and some of John McCain’s positions. One of the most notable differences is McCain’s position on climate change viz. the Republican Party’s traditional position (McCain is in the minority amongst his peers in terms of even believing in anthropogenic causes of climate change). What struck me as I was reading through the platform (pdf), was when issues of climate change and renewable energy were approached, they were done so with great trepidation; you could almost hear the Platform Committee gritting their collective teeth as they formulated these paragraphs.

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Energy

“Our base is excited about what’s happening,” House Minority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio, told the party platform-writing committee last week. Boehner holds the title of permanent chairman of the convention, and has been one of the driving forces behind the GOP oil-themed sit-in at the House during the month of August. The GOP message has been clear – sort of. Republicans want to drill for more oil in the United States and simultaneously promote “alternate power sources.”

Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri said, “This is the biggest issue in America today, the Democrats have walked away from it, and we’re going to continue to talk about it.”

And talk about it they do. But the final platform document is riddled with the tension between increasing domestic development of fossil fuels and simultaneously moving away from them. Below are a few excerpts and some analysis (any emphasis in the platform text my own):

“If we are to have the resources we need to achieve energy independence, we simply must draw more American oil from American soil. We support accelerated exploration, drilling and development in America, from new oilfields off the nation’s coasts to onshore fields such as those in Montana, North Dakota, and Alaska. The Green River Basin in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming offers recoverable shale oil that is ready for development, and most of it is on federal lands…”

“Nuclear energy is the most reliable zero-carbon emissions source of energy that we have.
Unwarranted fear mongering with no relationship to current technologies and safeguards has prevented us from starting construction of a single nuclear power plant in 31 years.As new plants are constructed using the highest safety and operation standards, the nation’s industrial and manufacturing base will be rejuvenated. The labor force will expand, with nearly 15,000 high quality jobs created for every new nuclear plant built — and those workers will lead the nation away from its dependence on foreign oil.”

Okay, I believe that nuclear will probably assume some role in new electricity generation in the coming years, but I am not going to believe that our “nation’s industrial and manufacturing base will be rejuvenated” because of it- the solution to that problem lies much deeper than that.

The subsection on renewables saw little change from official party line. Republicans have been stalling on extending renewable energy production tax credits and investment tax credits in Congress all year. One of their sticking points has been that tax credits need to apply to each technology equally, despite the fact that some technologies (i.e solar) are much more expensive than others.

“Republicans support these [wind and solar] and other alternative energy sources, including geothermal and hydropower, and anticipate technological developments that will increase their economic viability. We therefore advocate a long-term energy tax credit equally applicable to all renewable power sources.”

And of course, one must not forget about the elusive “clean coal.” I would be remiss if I didn’t also note that Barack Obama mentioned clean coal at his Mile High acceptance speech last week, something that took me by surprise, as the actual phrase “clean coal” had slipped out of the Senator’s public language in the last few months. The Republican Platform reads:

“Although alternate fuels will shape our energy future, coal — America’s most affordable and abundant energy resource and the source of most of our electricity — remains a strategic national resource that must play a major role in energy independence. We look to innovative technology to transform America’s coal supplies into clean fuels capable of powering motor vehicles and aircraft. We support coal-to-liquid and gasification initiatives, just as we support investment in the development and deployment of carbon capture and storage technologies, which can reduce emissions. We firmly oppose efforts by Democrats to block the construction of new coal-fired power plants. No strategy for reducing energy costs will be viable without a commitment to continued coal production and utilization.”

Towards the end of the Energy Independence and Security section there was a nice little shout-out to our NAFTA brothers and sisters. In it, the Platform Committee reminded Canada and Mexico that we’d be happy to take their energy any day of the week, including large-scale hydro:

“We embrace the open energy cooperation and trading relationship with our neighbors Canada and Mexico, including proven oil reserves and vast, untapped Canadian hydroelectric generation.”

Environment

The 2008 Republican Party Platform did see some movement on the issue of climate change, an issue that John McCain recognized as a sufficient enough problem to be the co-signer of the only climate change bill ever introduced in the U.S. Senate. McCain has supported a cap-and-trade on carbon emissions and historically Republicans have not. But the Platform Committee did budge a little by recognizing anthropogenic causes of climate change:

“The same human economic activity that has brought freedom and opportunity to billions has also increased the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. While the scope and long term consequences of this are the subject of ongoing scientific research, common sense dictates that the United States should take measured and reasonable steps today to reduce any impact on the environment.”

Republicans then offered their solution for climate change and that is, not surprisingly, technology and the market. And from what I can glean from the platform text, the best GOP idea for developing those technologies is giving away door prizes to the those companies or individuals who develop them – what a strategy!

Photo: Bolero2005 via flickr under a Creative Commons License

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