Republicans Should Not Oppose
Good Policy of AB 32
By William McLaughlin, member
of REP's national Board of Directors, published May 3, 2010 in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin,
Ontario, CA
Sen.
Bob Dutton's March 21 op-ed piece on the Perspectives page, "A
climate-change solution California cannot afford," would only make
sense if we were not facing a worldwide catastrophe due to the coming
effects of climate change. Our nation and our state are already feeling
severe effects and it is only going to get worse.
Dutton's opening sentence says it all. "In government, good policy
should always trump good politics."
Yet, he, and most of the Republicans in the state Legislature, have
opted to ignore good policy. They think they can gain a political edge
by ignoring the environmental effects of their actions because the
consequences are gradual, but if the California Republican Party
becomes the "Anti-Science Party," they will be doomed.
If Sen. Dutton, whom I have supported in the past, acted responsibly,
he would support the effective and reasonable implementation of AB 32.
He is right when he says the estimated costs of AB 32 are about $400
per family annually, or slightly over $1 per day. (The energy savings
achieved from efficiency improvements, already made by our fellow
Californians, more than compensate for that dollar.)
Lots of essential programs cost money, including education, police
protection, sewers, clean drinking water, etc. No doubt Dutton would
know better than trying to abolish all these essential programs in
order to somehow inspire job growth. I would hope that all our
legislators would. But maybe not!
Our state Legislature has become almost dysfunctional. Extremists on
both the right and left rule, and they seem to place their narrow
political agendas above the good of the state. That is unfortunate.
California has always been the technological leader of our nation.
It was here that the motion picture, aerospace, computer and biotech
industries grew, each employing hundreds of thousands. It will be the
center of growth of green jobs also, unless people like Sen. Dutton get
in the way.
While we dither, the Chinese are growing their renewable energy
industries rapidly. If we shut ours down, we will continue our
dependence on petroleum products from countries that hate us, and we
will find ourselves buying Chinese manufactured products paid for with
dollars borrowed from Asia. The time has come for California's
political office holders to start caring more for our state and its
future and less about posturing against their opponents.
I have been a Republican all my life. As a boy, I distributed "Dewey
for President" literature. The Republican Party used to be the party of
smaller, more effective government.
As governor, Ronald Reagan pushed through automotive pollution
controls, protected wild rivers, and brokered the establishment of
Redwood National Park. As president, he won approval of a strong treaty
protecting our atmosphere from ozone-depleting chemicals.
Ronald Reagan was a leader who worked with lawmakers in both parties to
win support for his pragmatic conservative agenda.
The California Republican Party and its leaders should emulate
President Reagan's pragmatism and work in good faith to get some things
done for the people. Californians have had it with the extremists and
their political games.
