PERSPECTIVE
Let’s Hear it for the Red,
White and Green
By Brad Collins
As we move into the fall political campaign season, we observe once again
the disconnect between campaign
rhetoric and political action. A politician
running for office has every incentive to
promise the moon — sometimes, mutually
contradictory moons.
The result can be
inflated, more-or-less
meaningless rhetoric,
with no likelihood
that it can pay off in
solutions to real-world, real-time problems. All politicians
are skilled at political
rhetoric. We need to
demand more: Our
Brad Collins job as voters and as
renewable energy
advocates is not just to compare positions,
but to drill down for concrete action plans.
Our election system, with its debates,
platforms and investigative reporting, is
designed to highlight the differences between
the positions of candidates. A position is not
necessarily an action plan. An action plan
calls for a change in the way business is done,
whereas a position may simply be rhetoric.
It’s easy to take the position, for example,
that health care or housing or energy should
be more affordable. It takes courage to propose an action plan that will affect the activities of insurance companies or landlords or
fossil fuel vendors. When a politician says,
“We need a plan that will be fair to everyone,” it means that he or she will vote for no
effective plan.
Sound cynical? Renewable energy advocates have reason to be cynical about the
negotiation and compromise required to
enact laws, but in fact we are an extraordinarily idealistic and patient lot. After decades of
lobbying, we can now feel delighted that
politicians of all stripes express support for
green buildings, green-collar jobs and green
electrons. Our persistence has paid off: Green
has become the position of the day.
If we hear only rhetoric, we must ask again and
again and again: “If elected, what are you going
to do to advance the red, white and green?”
So we’ve won half the battle. We’ve
arrived at the end game. The task now is to
close the enormous gap between rhetoric
and action. Closing that gap amounts to
bringing together politicians who have been
waging partisan trench warfare, lobbing gas
bombs across it.
At the federal level we see intransigents on
both sides. Many members of Congress, rhetorically, say we need incentives to shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy. But this Congress
has failed repeatedly to extend renewable energy tax credits. Democrats in the House of Representatives long ago announced that any
budget item must be paid for with an equivalent budget cut or revenue increase. That’s a
noble goal — unless it prohibits the creation of
good public policy.
To pay for an extension of the renewable
energy tax credits, Democrats have proposed
ending tax breaks for oil and gas companies,
or tightening income tax provisions on
hedge fund managers, or delaying tax benefits for multinational corporations. Republicans have countered that these are tax
increases, which cannot be allowed.
It seems politically irrational, in an
election year, to announce that “I support
Big Oil against solar power,” or “Hedge fund
millionaires contribute more to the U.S.
economy than a million new green-collar
jobs.” Yet that, in effect, is exactly what
some of our congressional representatives
have been saying this year.
Why would they say it? Clearly, there
must be a larger issue at stake. Washington
insiders suggest that the real issue is George
Bush’s first-term tax cuts. These are due to
expire in 2010, and Republicans want them
extended. A Democrat can reasonably point
out that the Bush tax cuts have not been
paid for with offsetting budget cuts. A Republican must tell his supporters, “I cannot allow
tax increases if it means we have to reduce
the Bush tax cuts.”
Thus, a stand-off that blocks good policy.
On one side, any legislation must have an
accompanying offset or “pay-for.” On the
other, no new taxes in any form can be
allowed. In either case the renewable community comes out on the short end and the
public good suffers.
our collective might to reverse this old silent
acquiescence habit. We must stand up for
the idea that good policy — especially policy
that pays for itself in the long run — trumps
partisanship. This is the task before us. I suggest the following actions to engage the political process this fall and break the stand-off:
Ask every office seeker, whether an incumbent or a newcomer, and at every level of government, where he or she stands on our issues.
And take it beyond positions. Ask about
action. Whether running for the U.S. House
or Senate, for state legislature, governor’s
seat, assembly, county commission, mayor or
city council, ask the candidate “What will
you do about …
• binding carbon legislation?”
• improving automobile gas mileage
and public transport?”
• financing workforce development for
the green economy?”
• enforcing federal renewable energy
standards?”
• long-term incentives and set-asides for
renewable technologies?”
And if we hear only rhetoric, we must
ask again and again and again: “If elected,
what are you going to do to advance the red,
white and green?” People who run for public office are smart. They know one thing
better than anything else — to govern, you
must first win the election.
ASES is moving on its own set of policy
recommendations for the 111th Congress.
We will support other groups working on
like recommendations for Congress and for
the next president. Our recommendations
will be published this fall.
Most of the renewable energy community is ready, willing and able to move this
country to a sustainable energy future —
which is sound public policy. We must now
actively help to determine if our candidates
believe in the red, white and green or if they
should find employment outside the public
service sector. ●
This is nothing new. What should be
new to us in the renewable energy field
is how we choose to respond. We must use
Brad Collins is the executive director of the
American Solar Energy Society ( ases.org).
