by REP President Martha Marks
Keynote speech at the WCV annual breakfast, Seattle, Washington, October 16, 2002
Good morning. I want to thank Maryanne Tagney-Jones and Bruce Gryniewski for inviting me to be here today. I realize they took a chance, offering this podium to an outsider, an easterner, a stranger from Republicans for Environmental Protection… the world's funniest oxymoron.
Gotta get that oxymoronic joke out on the table early, ya'know, so we can all have our laugh, work the chuckles out of our system, and then move on to the important business at hand.
But first, while we're still in such a jolly mood, I'd like to introduce several REP VIPs who happen to be in the audience. There's Bruce Fischer, Jr., who serves as President of our Washington Chapter. And also Jim DiPeso, one of your directors and my own absolutely-indispensable right-hand man. And others too... Vim Wright, Dr. Tom MacLean, Bruce Fischer, Sr., State Representative Toby Nixon, State Representative Glenn Anderson, and State Representative Fred Jarrett. I'm sorry that another REP member, State Senator Don Carlson, can't be here today, as he was for our annual meeting just three weeks ago. Still, I'm delighted to be joined by such a great group of REP America members, and even more impressed with this huge group you've assembled for breakfast this morning. Six hundred people is nothing to sneeze at!
And it really is an honor for me to address your meeting. From my two years on the board of the national League of Conservation Voters, I know that Washington Conservation Voters is one of the most effective of our affiliated groups anywhere. And it's a pleasure to serve with Ed Zuckerman on the LCV board. Ed's a savvy guy, as you all know, and he's taught me a lot about environmental politics.
The state of Washington has a national reputation as a conservation leader, because people here really care about their environment. You’ve worked hard to clean up your air and water and protect open space. You're leaders in promoting energy efficiency. And you have the potential to be leaders in renewable energy development.
As a nature photographer who has explored many parts of your state, I know that it is a very special place. Now don’t get me wrong. I love the landscapes we have in Illinois—our biodiversity-rich native prairies and oak savannas, our meandering rivers, our bird-filled marshes and bogs and those magnificent sunrises over Lake Michigan. But folks, I gotta tell ya… it's flat as heck back there! And given all our agriculture and urban development, we have to be content with nature in relatively small packages.
Out here, natural beauty comes in bigger packages—big mountains, big trees, big rivers, big salmon, big wilderness. And from what I'm hearing, your wilderness could get even bigger in the next few weeks if Congress passes the Wild Sky wilderness bill, which REP America strongly supports.
Last month, when REP held its annual conference in Portland, we were honored to have your Secretary of State, Sam Reed, as one of our two keynote speakers. We had to have two keynoters because, out of politeness to our host state, we had to invite someone from Oregon, too.
Sam told us some wonderful stories about Washington politics… like former Secretary of State Ralph Munro’s successful campaign to protect orca whales from being captured and pressed into indentured servitude as entertainers. (As an aside, I'm proud to say that Ralph Munro is a long-time member of REP America.)
Sam told us how Governor Dan Evans went on TV in 1970 to demand that state legislators get off the dime and pass a package of environmental bills. Legislators bristled but ultimately did what he asked. Sam said that to this day, Governor Evans lists environmental protection as the most important accomplishment of his 12 years in office.
Unfortunately, that would be an unusual boast for a GOP governor today. However, we at REP recall that several other Republican governors of his era were environmental leaders too. Tom McCall in Oregon, Bill Milliken in Michigan, another REP member David Cargo in New Mexico, and several others… all acted vigorously to protect air, water, and open space from pollution and shortsighted development.
Their efforts were mirrored at the national level by—dare I say it?— Richard Nixon… who worked with Congress to pass the framework of today’s national environmental policies. Was Nixon a true environmentalist? To be honest, probably not. But he was a canny politician who understood that Americans wanted their environment protected. Period.
The work of Nixon, Evans, McCall, Milliken, Cargo, Munro and Reed shows that strong, positive environmental leadership is completely consistent with Republican values. That may come as a surprise to some of my fellow environmentalists who believe that all Republicans are callous, money-grubbing polluters. And it may come as a surprise to some of my fellow Republicans who believe that environmental protection is some sort of pinko conspiracy against profits, property and apple pie.
The truth is that environmental protection has a long and honorable place in the Republican party. It started with a bill that Abraham Lincoln signed in 1864 to protect Yosemite. It continued with the pro-conservation policies of Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower & Barry Goldwater. And it lives on today in the good works of Governor George Pataki of New York and pro-environment Members of Congress like Nancy Johnson, Sherwood Boehlert and Chris Shays. All three are REP America members, by the way… as was Barry Goldwater the last 2 years before his death.
REP America argues that conservation is conservative. I like to say that conservatives should conserve—not squander—our resources. I also like to ask the rhetorical question: If conservatives won't conserve, who will?
Conservation is rooted in traditional conservative values:
Prudence.
Stewardship.
Personal responsibility.
Thrift.
And it's patriotic, too. America’s culture was shaped by the wilderness experience of our forefathers. Who could look at Mount Rainier or a grove of ancient cedars in the Olympic rain forest and not feel proud that the American people had the wisdom and foresight to protect them? Like the monuments in our nation’s capital and the battlefields from our Revolution and Civil War, those wild areas are enduring symbols of our country. Our national parks, forests, monuments, wildlife refuges, wild and scenic rivers, and wilderness areas are priceless heirlooms that define our character and unite us in our love of country. That's patriotism.
To my mind, patriotism encompasses the land that sustains our nation, yielding food, fiber, water, energy, inspiration and a tangible link to our history. Defending the land—its health, its productivity, its beauty —is an act of profound patriotism.
As Theodore Roosevelt said in 1910,"Conservation is a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of ensuring the safety and continuance of the nation."
Years later, Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of our nuclear Navy, said: "Government has as much a duty to protect the land, the air, the water, the natural environment against technological damage, as it has to protect the country against foreign enemies."
Conservation is patriotic. Conservation is conservative.
Yet in 2002, the notion of conservation as a conservative cause strikes many as odd. Recounting past Republican conservation achievements often seems like a musty trip down memory lane, with little relevance for today. Dan Evans left the governor’s mansion a quarter century ago. Richard Nixon has left this world for precincts unknown. Theodore Roosevelt is a colorful, slightly eccentric figure from the tintype era, a world long vanished.
The parties today are more polarized than they were a generation ago. Radio pundits and TV talking heads toss out slogans that divide more than they inform. Jobs vs. owls. Fish vs. farmers.
There are several reasons why this happened. The complexion of the environmental movement gradually changed in ways that conservatives found alienating. That alienation led to a new breed of think-tank ideologues whose philosophy is best described as a weird mixture of reactionary populism and corporate socialism. Most seriously, special interest money has flooded our political system, threatening to drown it.
The environment is now just another football in the political wars. Many Democrats want to keep the issue to themselves. Many Republicans play into their hands by dismissing legitimate environmental concerns.
But, you know what? Richard Nixon, Dan Evans and the other GOP leaders of the 1970s had it right. They had it right! The environment is a mainstream issue that still enjoys broad, consistent support from ordinary American citizens. Those anti-environmental ideologues in my party turn their backs on it at their own peril.
That’s why REP was founded in 1995, in the heyday of the "Gingrich Revolution." We three crazy women who happened to meet at an endangered species conference in DC were mad as hell at Gingrich and the Boys in Congress, and we just simply refused to take it any longer. We set out to send a loud and clear message to GOP leaders that our party had gone seriously astray and needed to reclaim the environmental high ground. I'm proud to say that national GOP leaders have gotten that message from us. They've heard it. And heard it, and heard it, and heard it. Unfortunately, most of them are still in deep, deep denial.
And that's a shame, because the American people really want clean air, clean water, and protection for special places and endangered critters. They really want political leaders who will debate constructively and work together to find practical solutions. What they don't want is for the condition of the world we live in to be abandoned to ideological temper-tantrums, transitory political calculations and vacuous sound bites. Unfortunately, most of the time, that is exactly what they get.
Nowadays, government officials at all levels need to work harder and smarter than their predecessors. In a way, the '70s generation had it easy. Sources of pollution were big and ugly. Belching smokestacks. Raw sewage outfalls. The solutions were pretty obvious.
Today, the problems are more complex and difficult to solve.
Air and water pollution comes from millions of sources in all directions.
Cities are sprawling out, eating up farmland, wetlands and forests.
Traffic is hideous—here in the Puget Sound region, in the Chicago area where I live, and literally everywhere else across America.
Our public lands are under growing pressure from urban sprawl, air pollution, motorized recreation and extractive industries.
Toxic chemicals persist in our bodies, in wildlife, in the food we eat.
There's a growing worldwide demand for energy. That means more fossil fuels releasing more pollution and more greenhouse gases to upset the most fundamental processes of nature.
These problems are not just environmental issues. They’re business issues. Community issues. Family issues.
So what does all this mean for you folks here in Washington? Let me point out three things.
You need all the help you can get to confront these issues, at all levels of government. You need thoughtful Republicans and Democrats working together constructively to find answers.
For Democrats, it means a greater willingness to consider market-based solutions. The market is not an infallible deity beyond human influence. But markets are useful tools that can spur innovation and creativity at reduced cost.
For Republicans, it means a greater willingness to consider property in a broader context. The right to use and enjoy property must be protected, of course. But property rights do not exist in a vacuum. We all have neighbors who deserve consideration. And we all exist at the pleasure of a great commons called nature, which delivers services that are indispensable for our lives. As John McCain wrote a few years back: Nature is not a liberal plot.
Let’s throw the false dichotomies into the trash heap where they belong. No more "economy vs. environment" talk that distorts reality and confuses the public. It’s not "either-or." It’s "both-and."
Two quick examples.
#1. Just east of here, 100,000 acres owned by Weyerhaeuser will be sold to the non-profit Evergreen Forest Trust, which will manage the land as a working forest to pay off the tax-exempt bonds funding the purchase. A conservation easement held by another non-profit, the Cascade Land Conservancy, will ensure full protection for water, wetlands and wildlife.
If the deal goes through – keep your fingers crossed -- more than 150 square miles of forests, rivers and wildlife habitat will remain a functioning ecosystem. The environment will benefit and so will the local economy.
That is an example of fresh thinking and creative problem solving. I want to commend Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn for pushing the legislation needed to make it happen.
#2. Go out to Walla Walla and take a look at the magnificent Stateline Wind Project. Hundreds of turbines stretching for miles across the hills are turning out pollution-free energy and bringing income to the rural Northwest. It’s one of the largest such facilities in the nation, but it’s only a taste of what could come. New industries, new jobs, and a new, predictable source of income for the farm economy.
As Jim DiPeso has taught me… energy is the place where economic potential and environmental stewardship meet. Global investment in clean energy technology will approach $3.5 trillion between now and 2020. The Northwest has a great foundation to take a substantial share of that business.
And the market would get a whole lot bigger if we as a nation could finally bring ourselves to address global warming through better government policies, R&D, and both public and private investments to support energy efficiency and renewable energy technology.
We need to remember an important constituency that has no vote and no representation in the Legislature. It is unseen and unheard. Yet that constituency, ultimately, will judge the quality of our decisions and the value of what we accomplish in our lifetimes. That constituency is the future… our children, our grandchildren, our neighbors in time.
We must not leave our neighbors in time an unlivable world. We must not let our grandchildren down.
