Republicans and Global Warming

Are some Republicans really coming around on climate change? Brian Beutler doubts it and Ryan Avent brings more skepticism. What's interesting is that there really has been some stirrings of change in certain sectors of corporate America, but it seems that to be considered viable in Republican presidential politics you need to pay fealty to each and every specific business group priority; just a generally "pro business" posture doesn't seem to be good enough.

That's too bad, because it seems to me that things like a carbon tax whose revenues are plowed into income tax rebates (or something similar) and support for relaxation of zoning rules ought to count as both "green" and "conservative" and even have some support from your more independent-minded conservative intellectuals (though not from the key Movement publications) but seem to be nonstarters for Republican politicians. Generally speaking, for a party that's become incredibly unpopular we're seeing very little interest in policy innovation, not even anything on a par with strong-but-doomed insurgencies like McCain 2000 or Hart 1984.

Comments

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Posted by Dani | October 17, 2007 1:22 PM

Of course, the claim that the Republicans are "incredibly unpopular" contradicts the analysis from several posts back which was that party identification doesn't matter to voters in congressional elections. Maybe Yglesias means that the Republicans are incredibly unpopular among Dalton graduates and/or writers for The Atlantic, although that would surely fall into the "dog bites man" category.

Posted by y81 | October 17, 2007 1:23 PM

One reason that Republicans aren't following the businesses' lead on climate change might be that most businesses outside the extractive industries (oil & logging) have shifted their support to the Democrats of late.

Posted by Mr. Noah | October 17, 2007 1:25 PM

Hart wasn't really doomed in 1984 ... if it weren't for the various superdelegate rules, or if he had done one more bold thing (like pledged to select a woman as VP) he might have won.

Posted by Nicholas Beaudrot | October 17, 2007 1:34 PM

I'm all hep on clean coal. It's the ginchiest.

Posted by Jeffrey Davis | October 17, 2007 2:07 PM

"like a carbon tax whose revenues are plowed into income tax rebates (or something similar) and support for relaxation of zoning rules ought to count as both "green" and "conservative" "

The other day I heard an environmentalist lobbyist talking about how if they adopt a cap and trade system where they give away (or almost give away) the carbon allowances (which they did for acid rain) then carbon producing industries stock prices would rise and consumers would just take the hit. Big industries get windfall profits and the burden is allotted in a way regressive way.

I can't say this really explains GOP motivations, but it's another reason to be skeptical.

Posted by Christopher Colaninno | October 17, 2007 9:06 PM

I don't understand why you think eliminating zoning laws will solve all sorts of problems.

The town I live in now, the fourth largest city in the country, Houston, has no zoning laws.

Yeah, Houston is bigger than Washington DC, Boston, Philadelphia, basically any other city but New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and it has no zoning laws.

I am not really sure why you want the rest of America's cities to be more like Houston.

Well....., unless you like brothels. Houston is crawling with brothels. They don't call them that though, they call them "spas" or other related names.

Posted by Mark | October 17, 2007 10:11 PM