GOP looks to take on greener hue

Party planning to take issue from Democrats

Friday, June 5, 2009

Last month, the state GOP named a 12-member Commission on Environmental Solutions, a sign that Republicans are looking for a common voice on an issue on which Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) has received high marks from advocates and where Democrats routinely outscore Republicans on legislative report cards.

Commission members include Republicans from around the state with backgrounds in environmental policy, utilities, agriculture and green business. They have one thing in common, said Maryland Republican Party Chairman James Pelura III, who launched the idea of an environmental panel: "They are Republican, and they want to solve our environmental problems using science."

An emphasis on science is a must for the commission to work, said Wayne T. Gilchrest, a Republican known for championing the environment during his 18 years representing Maryland's 1st Congressional District.

That includes involving scientists from universities around the state such as Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland — something commission organizers said they intend to do.

Republicans have a long way to go, according to Gilchrest. "It's like Pope Urban VIII was a Republican," he said.

An early friend of Galileo Galilei, Urban VIII later put the astronomer on trial for heresy, despite agreeing with Galileo's theory that the Earth revolves around the sun.

"One problem the Republicans have is they look at dogma, and they don't look at scientific facts," Gilchrest said.

During his time in office, Gilchrest said he became frustrated by the GOP's resistance to wetlands legislation and a strong Clean Water Act.

"My party chose to ignore the facts and go with childlike solutions," he said.

Pressing environmental issues like climate change often "get mixed up with solutions and whether government should be or could be a solution," said Donald F. Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science in Cambridge.

During the administration of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), Boesch's center teamed with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources on an outdoor exhibit displayed in St. Michaels that depicted the shoreline erosion caused by tropical storm Isabel.

The exhibit noted that sea level rise brought about by climate change could increase shoreline vulnerability over the next century. A top DNR official asked the group to redo the exhibit, eliminating any reference to global climate change, Boesch said.

But advocates also credit Ehrlich for introducing legislation that led to a "flush tax" on sewer hookups and septic systems that goes toward upgrading wastewater treatment plants. The plants are considered the biggest Chesapeake Bay polluters.

Partisan political rhetoric over the environment seems to be waning, at least on the national front, Boesch said. Bipartisan support in the U.S. House of Representatives for the Waxman-Markey bill, which lays the groundwork for a cap-and-trade program for carbon emissions, is a sign that Republicans who deny the existence of climate change are being "marginalized," he said.

"For the most part in Washington, the debate is not whether it's an issue or a problem — although some people still argue it's not — but how do we deal with it?" Boesch said.

Solutions and science will be the focus of the commission, said Pelura, who defended the party's reputation.

"Republicans have been improperly labeled as anti-environment," he said. "What Republicans are against is wasteful spending."

On the other hand, "Democrats keep throwing money at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and then patting themselves on the back."

Such comments underscore the distrust that some Republican lawmakers feel for environmental advocacy groups in Annapolis.

One former and one current legislator named to the GOP commission — just-retired Sen. Janet Greenip and Del. Richard A. Sossi — received low marks on the legislative report card issued last year by the Maryland League of Conservation Voters.

Sossi (R-Upper Shore) received a 53 percent for his voting record during the 2008 General Assembly. Greenip (R-Anne Arundel) got a zero.

Republicans often do not score well on such measures because they will not vote for "flawed" legislation that wastes money and yields few gains, Pelura said.

Republicans have joined Democrats in voting for legislation that gives citizens legal standing to challenge state environmental permits in court and for creating a fund dedicated to Chesapeake Bay cleanup, said House Environmental Matters Chairwoman Maggie L. McIntosh (D-Baltimore City), who welcomed GOP support for the environment.

"If done honestly and fairly, [Republicans] will come up with supporting very similar things as [Democrats] have," she said.

But McIntosh, who will chair the Democratic Party's coordinated campaign for the 2010 election cycle, said she doesn't think Democrats are vulnerable on environmental issues. "For the 2010 election cycle, it's way too late for them to co-opt it," she said of the Republicans.

There's little expectation that a Republican approach to the environment will win over the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, said Andrew Langer, the commission's chairman.

"I don't expect traditional left-leaning environmental groups to ever accept an environmental conservation approach that involves markets and less government," said Langer, who spent 15 years working with organizations focused on federal environmental policy and is now president of The Institute for Liberty, a conservative public policy advocacy organization in Washington, D.C.

The commission plans to meet in June to begin developing solutions and talking points to put in the hands of Republican candidates by late 2009 or early next year, as the 2010 campaign season kicks into full gear.

The commission's approach will be twofold, Langer said.

One approach will focus on pollution prevention, including reducing emissions into the air and water. A second will focus on conservation, taking on issues such as land use, agriculture and species preservation.

Republican candidates "understand conservation, not wasting," Langer said.

The commission hopes to help develop a "coherent philosophy" that candidates can take on the campaign trail, he said.

"We have to be better at talking about the fundamentals in order to win voters toward our cause," he said. That includes "pointing out where the other side goes too far in pursuit of nebulous environmental goals."

It makes sense for Republicans to zero in on the environment in a state that is so focused on the Chesapeake Bay, said Michael J.G. Cain, director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at St. Mary's College of Maryland.

"All of our property rights are being affected by the pollution of the bay," Cain said.

Property rights, the decentralization of energy generation and green business are all issues where Republicans could make inroads, he said.

"There is nothing fundamentally anti-Republican about clean energy," he said.

With Maryland often taking a lead role nationally on environmental issues, the state's Republicans could be in the forefront of environmental policymaking for the national party, Cain said.

"If they do not do this, it will mean that they cede a whole set of policies to the Democratic Party," he said.

McIntosh listed Democratic accomplishments under O'Malley, including passage of the Clean Cars and Healthy Air acts, each of which enacted stricter limits on global warming emissions than called for in federal guidelines, and a program to restore oysters to the bay, where they act as natural filters.

Environmental policy should be a nonpartisan pursuit, said advocates, who praised the commission's formation.

"There's nothing that says Democrats own the environmental issue," said Cindy Schwartz, executive director of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters.

Republicans were the first environmentalists, and advocates are willing to work with them, she said.

"Show us what you're talking about," Schwartz said. "Show us your solutions, and we'll talk."

Other advocates shared a mix of optimism and skepticism at the Republican plan.

"What a voter has to do is not let [Republican candidates] simply talk about solutions," said Kim Coble, Maryland executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

"What the voter has to do is ask, ‘How can you assure me that these actions are going to take place?' That's where the success or the failure of this initiative has to be judged."

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