busyRepublicans For Environmental Protection: ‘Conservatives, Of All People, Should Not Ignore Basic Principles Of Economics’
Why are so many Republicans in Congresslying about green economy legislation? Republicans for Environmental Protection have no idea. In a sharply worded press release, this organization of conservation-minded conservatives criticize the Hill Republicans’ $3100 light-switch-tax lie, which is based on a deliberate misinterpretation of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology analysis of carbon pricing. They describe the GOP pattern of lying about energy as “a disservice to American citizens” and “a dangerous unwillingness to learn the right lessons from the election debacles of 2006 and 2008″:
These folks are getting back to some basic conservative principles: 1) If it ain't broke, don't fix it. 2) If you don't know how it works, don't mess with it. 3) Conserve what you have; don't waste it. Live within your means. 4) Be cautious about making changes, until you know what the results will be.
Those are some good principles for dealing with the environment, because it's easy to damage and we don't really know enough to fix it easily after we've broken part of it. There is clear recognition that a healthy environment will benefit business and improve people's health and happiness. Over the last several decades, the Republican Party has drifted away from its genuinely conservative roots into some rather radical and not very constructive directions, to the disgust of liberals and some older-style Republicans. So check out this group. Some conservatives are seriously fighting the good fight. I like that picture of the future they're painting. I'm not the kind of liberal who wants to wind up in a subsistence future because people wrecked the environment and the economy.
