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Energy an Opportunity for GOP to Win Back Support

January 5, 2007

It was like the first day of school on Capitol Hill today as the 110th Congress was gaveled to order. Crowds filled the halls and chambers, newly pressed suits and power ties were on display, and freshman lawmakers tried to figure out where they were supposed to go.

Anecdotal evidence indicates that there were more male congressional staff members sporting pony tails – a sign, perhaps, of the new headmasters who have taken charge.

The leaders of Congress’ Democratic majority indicated that energy and climate will be high priority issues. For the minority Republicans squeezed into a warren of smaller offices, a focus on energy and climate could be an opportunity to win back the voters’ favor.

Voters would welcome bipartisan action against a wasps’ nest of interrelated energy problems – volatile fuel prices, rising imports, air polllution, and global warming.

Gasoline prices have moderated since their summer highs, but post-election polls reported that energy remains one of the higher ranking national issues that concern voters. A post-election Zogby poll found that half the respondents said global warming made a difference in their ballot selections. Zogby warned politicians that they ignore the climate issue at their peril.

President Bush has correctly pinpointed energy as one of the issues where the Republican administration and Democratic Congress could come to terms. A spokesman for the president promised that the State of the Union message on January 23 will contain energy proposals that will "knock your socks off." There were broad hints of stronger measures to improve motor vehicle fuel economy.

It remains to be seen how many voters will be barefoot after the State of the Union message. But Congressional Republicans could help matters along by coming up with balanced energy proposals that break away from the dead-end obsession with opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, other conservation lands, and protected marine waters to drilling. New domestic production won’t keep up with demand and won't reduce vulnerability to the temblors of a brittle world oil market. As Senator John McCain said in an energy speech in May 2006, "Our only real solution is to move away from oil and towards other fuels."

Likewise, Republicans could learn from the lessons of the Zogby poll by leaving behind medieval nonsense about global warming and instead building a majority behind a climate bill that gives a central role to market-oriented incentives for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

To win back control of the congressional gavels, Republicans will have to earn support from citizens who care little about partisan games and a great deal about solving national problems. Hard work and a return to old-fashioned stewardship principles that are central to true conservatism will make that possible.