I'm never going to agree with the nationalism implicit in the early part of this column, but clearly there's common ground. Is that enough? I'd like to think so, as I am impressed by the ideas I hear coming from some evangelicals, the "energy hawks," and green Republicans. Certainly, there will be disagreements, but there also seems like a lot of opportunity...
Absolutely. Wind turbines don't vote and neither do solar panels. There is no earthly reason why either should be political footballs. Making more use of clean, domestic (and therefore secure) energy sources should be something like, say, opposing terrorism that all Americans can agree is a good idea. If politics in this country had not gotten so polarized, just for the sake of polarization, it would be.
Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.awea.org
www.ifnotwind.org
Nicely said, Tom... It's easy to fall into that polarized mindset, and miss the potential for finding common ground...
Amen to you, Jeff and to Mr. Gray. This is as from from a nonpartisan issue as one can get. I hate to say it, but part of the impact of Gore's film was to enhance the partisan aspect (not Gore's fault, I suppose, but he WAS a Dem candidate for President not so long ago). If we simply applaud the people who are doing right, not the parties, we'll find that bipartisan coalitions will form more easily. Posts like this are a small but necessary part of this process. I hope to see more of this on other sites.
MySpace tells me that today is your birthday, Jeff. Happy Birthday! Hope it's a good one.
Linking to Townhall... you're a bigger man than I. But it is good to see that sustaina-support might be brewing from the other side.
You got me, Ryan... 38 today... thank you! There definitely are green conservatives out there, but the Ann Coulters and Rush Limbaughs draw a lot more attention because of their willingness to say anything to draw attention to themselves...
We need to find that common ground, and kudos to you Jeff for pointing some out.
It's good when the positive points of being green can be brought to light regardless of political party. I think you're all on to something there, but getting the politicians themselves to see that will be something else entirely.
It would be nice if we all could just rubber stamp someone as being green and then everyone could gravitate toward that. There's no official sticker or anything. That ought to change.
On this topic, interesting to note that there is an article in today's (Oct. 8th) New York Times Business Section about all of the folks, particularly on the conservative side of the spectrum, who agree that raising the federal gasoline tax is a good idea. They include former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, former Council of Economic Advisors chair (under Pres. Bush) Gregory Mankiw, and Gary S. Becker, economics professor and Nobel laureate at the University of Chicago.
Greenspan's quote: "That's the way to get consumption down. It's a national security issue."
Who knew?
Regards,
Thomas O. Gray
American Wind Energy Association
www.awea.org
www.ifnotwind.org
Jeff's been secretly linking to conservative evangelical greens for years (shhhhhhhh....).
Lots of stuff going on in evangelical circles lately. Probably the most interesting along these lines is the growth of ecology as an overseas missions field. Churches have done some noteworthy stuff in the third world w/regard to public health and disease, but they're coming to understand that if you don't clean up the water (for instance), innoculating against typhoid and treating cases of waterborne illness are just getting you to stasis. Ed Brown at Care of Creation is working this, among others. Hung out with him up at Vineyard earlier this year.
Keep up the terrific work!
Warm regards,
Don Bosch
evaneco.com
evaneco-at-gmail.com
Thanks for the update, Don! And I haven't been too secretive about it... 
Thanks for linking "Green Republicans" to our web site. At Republicans for Environmental Protection, we are very excited about the opportunity to turn our party around before the next Presidential election in 08. Support like your's is vital to accomplishing that!
Rob Sisson
Membership and Development Director
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