When I heard Mitt Romney’s speech at the Republican National Convention, I wondered what had happened to the proud tradition of environmental conservation within the Republican Party. In accepting the Republican nomination for President, Romney only mentioned the environment in passing, and when he did, he derided, to the delight of convention delegates, President Obama’s interest in slowing sea level rise and healing the planet. It is one thing to debate the forms of energy this country should exploit—a legitimate policy debate. It seems to me quite another thing to dismiss or, worse, make fun of conservation and environmental protection. Indeed, conservation, which calls for preserving our natural capital, is traditionally a conservative idea and value.  

The Republican Party has a proud tradition of conservation and environmental protection. For example, Teddy Roosevelt was a prominent conservationist whose policies led to the creation of the National Park Service. Richard Nixon signed the legislation that established the Environmental Protection Agency. It wasn’t very long ago that conservation was a bipartisan issue—a value shared by Republicans and Democrats. 

But, over the last 30 years, conservation and environmental protection became a partisan issue. The battle lines were drawn during the Reagan administration with the appointment of James Watt as Interior Secretary, one of the most important environment-related jobs in the country. The interior secretary was responsible for overseeing the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and other important components of our natural resources. Watt was a divisive figure and widely viewed as anti-environmentalist.

For those who care about preserving the health of our planet and, ultimately, the health of human communities, the challenge is to re-frame the conversation by building a stronger and broader coalition of constituents who will stand up for those things. There remain traditional Republicans who care deeply about the environment. Many within the national security community and the military, for instance, have been aggressive advocates for the use of alternative energy as an important strategy for reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Hunters and fishermen remain leaders in habitat conservation. There is a strong emerging voice within the religious community calling for more aggressive stewardship of God’s creation. The widespread impacts of environmental change on human health have galvanized members of the health community to support a cleaner environment.

Republicans and Democrats who care about the environment must unite traditional conservationists and those who care about human health, national security, and protecting God’s creation behind preserving the health of the planet—for the benefit of plants, animals, and people. In our paper Uncommon Allies, we lay out a prescription for doing that.    

At Arabella Advisors we have many clients, both liberal and conservative, who are working tirelessly to promote conservation and protect the environment. For these clients, protecting the environment is not a partisan issue but rather an obligation we have to future generations. We are proud to work with them.

~Bruce Boyd, Principal and Managing Director, Arabella Advisors

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