February 28, 2010 Op-Ed Columnist How the G.O.P. Goes Green By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN It is early evening on Capitol Hill, and I am sitting with Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican, who, along with John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, is trying to craft a new energy bill â one that could actually win 60 votes. What is interesting about Graham is that he has been willing â courageously in my view â to depart from the prevailing G.O.P. consensus that the only energy policy we need is âdrill, baby, drill.â What brought you around, I ask? Grahamâs short answer: politics, jobs and legacy. We start with politics. The Republican Party today has a major outreach problem with two important constituencies, âHispanics and young people,â Graham explains: âI have been to enough college campuses to know if you are 30 or younger this climate issue is not a debate. Itâs a value. These young people grew up with recycling and a sensitivity to the environment â and the world will be better off for it. They are not brainwashed. ... From a Republican point of view, we should buy into it and embrace it and not belittle them. You can have a genuine debate about the science of climate change, but when you say that those who believe it are buying a hoax and are wacky people you are putting at risk your partyâs future with younger people. You can have a legitimate dispute about how to solve immigration, but when you start focusing on the last names of people the demographics will pass you by.â So Grahamâs approach to bringing around his conservative state has been simple: avoid talking about âclimate change,â which many on the right donât believe. Instead, frame our energy challenge as a need to âclean up carbon pollution,â to âbecome energy independentâ and to âcreate more good jobs and new industries for South Carolinians.â He proposes âputting a price on carbon,â starting with a very focused carbon tax, as opposed to an economywide cap-and-trade system, so as to spur both consumers and industries to invest in and buy new clean energy products. He includes nuclear energy, and insists on permitting more offshore drilling for oil and gas to give us more domestic sources, as we bridge to a new clean energy economy. âCap-and-trade as we know it is dead, but the issue of cleaning up the air and energy independence should not die â and you will never have energy independence without pricing carbon,â Graham argues. âThe technology doesnât make sense until you price carbon. Nuclear power is a bet on cleaner air. Wind and solar is a bet on cleaner air. You make those bets assuming that cleaning the air will become more profitable than leaving the air dirty, and the only way it will be so is if the government puts some sticks on the table â not just carrots. The future economy of America and the jobs of the future are going to be tied to cleaning up the air, and in the process of cleaning up the air this country becomes energy independent and our national security is greatly enhanced.â Remember, he adds: âWe are more dependent on foreign oil today than after 9/11. That is political malpractice, and every member of Congress is responsible.â This isnât just for the next generation, says Graham: âAs you talk about the future, if you forget the people who live in the present, you will have no future politically. You have to get the people in the present to buy into the future. I tell my voters: âIf we try to clean up the air and become energy independent, we will create more jobs than anything I can do as a senator.â General Electric makes all the turbines for the G.E. windmills in Greenville, South Carolina.â He also is pushing to make his state a manufacturing center for nuclear reactor components and biomass from plants and timber. What would most help him bring around his G.O.P. colleagues? The business lobby. âThe Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers need to tell my colleagues it is O.K. to price carbon, if you do it smartly,â he says. Sure, Grahamâs strategy will give many greens heartburn. I donât agree with every point. But if there is going to be a clean energy bill, greens and Democrats will have to recruit some Republicans. Graham says heâs ready to meet them in the middle. âWeâve got to get started,â he says, âbecause once we do, every C.E.O. will adopt a carbon strategy, no matter what the law actually requires.â And for those Republicans who think this is only a loser, Senator Graham says think again: âWhat is our view of carbon as a party? Are we the party of carbon pollution forever in unlimited amounts? Pricing carbon is the key to energy independence, and the byproduct is that young people look at you differently.â Look at how he is received in colleges today. âInstead of being just one more short, white Republican over 50,â says Graham, âI am now semicool. There is an awareness by young people that I am doing something different.â Five more G.O.P. senators like him and we could have a real energy bill. âWe canât be a nation that always tries and fails,â Graham concludes. âWe have to eventually get some hard problem right.â
"What brought you around, I ask? Grahamâs short answer: politics, jobs and legacy. We start with politics. The Republican Party today has a major outreach problem with two important constituencies, âHispanics and young people,â Graham explains: âI have been to enough college campuses to know if you are 30 or younger this climate issue is not a debate. Itâs a value. These young people grew up with recycling and a sensitivity to the environment â and the world will be better off for it. They are not brainwashed" Is the future. For example look at this big companies who invest now. http://c0688662.cdn.cloudfiles.rack...release-bloom-foundation-customer-2-24-10.pdf