Editor’s Note (28 Jul 2023): Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP) began in 1995. The letter I quote from below was not archived by the WayBack Machine and this copy is the only record of its existence online. (nz)
I found this statement archived on ConservAmerica’s website, REP: https://rep.org/
At the top of the archived website is a quote from Ronald Reagan:
Many laws protecting environmental quality have promoted liberty by securing property against the destructive trespass of pollution. [In our own time, the nearly universal appreciation of these preserved landscapes, restored waters, and cleaner air through outdoor recreation is a modern expression of our freedom and leisure to enjoy the wonderful life that generations past have built for us.]
Ronald Reagan. Message to the Congress Transmitting the Report of the Council on Environmental Quality. 3 Oct 1988. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum.
Another quote from Barry Goldwater:
“While I am a great believer in the free enterprise system and all that it entails, I am an even stronger believer in the right our people to live in a clean and pollution-free environment.”
David Jenkins. Pollution, Politics, and the GOP. REP’s vice president for government and political affairs
AN HISTORICAL DOCUMENT: Dave delivered this speech at the Society of Environmental Journalists converence in Miami, Florida, on October 21, 2011.
Martha Marks, REP President. REP’s Earth Day Message to the GOP. 1 Apr 2004. Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C.
AN HISTORICAL DOCUMENT: Martha gave this statement at a press conference of environmental leaders at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. on April 1, 2004.
nz: Today’s Conservative movement has forgotten what REP has tried to remind all people politically persuaded to ignore the need to legislate climate protection in the United States and around the world.
See also: Ajit Niranjan. ‘Era of global boiling has arrived,’ says UN chief as July set to be hottest month on record. 28 Jul 2023. The Guardian.
ConservAmerica, formerly known as Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP), is a national nonprofit organization formed in 1995. REP’s stated purpose is to strengthen the Republican Party’s stance on environmental issues and support efforts to conserve natural resources and protect human and environmental health. Incorporated in Illinois, its headquarters are in Sturgis, Michigan.
On March 30, 2012, REP President Rob Sisson and Chairwoman Tina Beattie announced that the organization would be changing its name to ConservAmerica.[1] ConservAmerica had been the name of REP’s sister 501(c)3 organization; that nonprofit is now called the Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship.[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ConservAmerica
I wrote at the time: Is America witnessing the birth of a new civil war? A polarization of political ideologies has paralyzed the democratic process and poisoned the relationship needed between politics, science, and hermeneutics.
This conservative organization’s action page has form letters on a number of issues that Republican voters may send to their representatives to let them know that the party line may not be in their best interests.
Whether or not the debate is about jobs, public radio, oil and gas, or America’s military footprint in the world; all Americans will benefit by the preservation of our resources. Conservative Republicans, Liberal Democrats, and everyone in between and on the fringes can work together to provide the regulatory leadership that demonstrates our respect for all life and a basic human right to clean water and air.
The “Big Lie” perpetrated by climate change doubters and insincerely debated by Global Warming Experts, warrants the recall of those representatives whose bullying is tantamount to treason and rends our union vulnerable to the extremist, irresponsible policy that cites Climate Change as a lie, endangering the health and safety of our children, and putting us at the brink of disaster. (Neil Zusman, 2011-03-17).
The Senate letter, lost to even the WayBack Machine at archive.org, “Congress Should Pass a ‘Clean’ Continuing Resolution” includes:
As a Republican voter, I urge you to support a fair 2011 continuing resolution that does not target environmental and conservation programs for a disproportionate share of budget cuts and is free of the anti-environmental riders that were, unfortunately, included in a resolution that the House passed on February 19.
I understand the need to correct the federal government’s fiscal imbalances, and it is fair to require reductions in environmental and conservation programs. It is not fair, however, to require these programs to shoulder a disproportionate share of the reductions. Nor should the resolution include the shockingly extreme riders that were in the House’s resolution. These riders would weaken bedrock environmental laws, including the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, as well as public lands protection and wildlife conservation.
Republicans were not elected to weaken laws that protect Americans’ health and protect our nation’s scenic, historic, and wildlife treasures for future generations.
Congressional Republicans must return to the traditional conservatism that values stewardship, saving for the future, and making frugal and careful use of our country’s natural as well as its fiscal resources.
Please support a continuing resolution that takes a rational approach towards correcting our nation’s fiscal imbalances, and avoids indulging the anti-environmental agendas of political extremists.
See: Smackdown: climate science vs. climate economics.
See: Climate Co-benefits and Child Mortality Wedges.
See: Snubbing Skeptics Threatens to Intensify Climate War, Study Says.
See: Climate Zombies Now Run The House.
See: GOP Budget Amendments Would Destroy Health, Economy, Planet
See: EPA chief faces hostile House GOP
See: Energy & Commerce Committee Investigates Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing
