Conservatives focus on environmental changes

Sep 25 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Neil Offen The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.

Not only liberals can be environmentalists. Conservatives can be, too. They just see the solutions to environmental problems differently.

That was among the main messages Monday at a day-long conference at Duke University called "Conservative Visions of Our Environmental Future."

The conference, sponsored by Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and a number of conservative student organizations, brought together self-described right-wingers who agreed that the best way to protect the environment is to get the government out of the way and let the free market do its job.

"A lot of times, when government gets involved, it does more harm than good," said Nicolas Loris, an environmental economist at the Heritage Foundation. "We shouldn't have lobbyists and politicians deciding who builds what rather than letting the private sector make the decision."

Government has a role in protecting the environment, panelists agreed, but that role should be limited. It should include spurring research and development, but should not get involved in the marketplace.

"Government is not allowed to trample on the rights of others," said Jeff Holmstead, who served in the Environmental Protection Agency under President George W. Bush.

"I think the government role should be to establish a framework to allow the private sector to work effectively. If we're really serious about reducing CO2 emissions, my conclusion is that we ought to put in place policies that would encourage energy creation that is comparable in price to fossil fuels."

In a half-empty auditorium, most of the speakers also agreed that perhaps the most important step the government could take would be to stop subsidizing any kind of energy production and development.

"Stop it all," said Eli Lehrer, president of the R Street Institute, a conservative think tank. "Why should government subsidize any product development? Let's have energy creation driven by market competition -- not subsidies. Let's remove subsidies for all energy sources and return control to the market.

Lehrer pointed out that "subsidies don't make industries competitive. They are successful in spite of subsidies, not because of them."

Lehrer felt the same way about government regulation.

"There's certainly a role for regulation," he said, "but the price mechanism can work more effectively."

Duke student David Roche called the conference "a slightly different take on the environment" and said he hoped the day's talk would get the discussion past the "bumper sticker stage."

But a number of speakers noted that the debate had become increasingly polarized.

Both the right and the left, said Jeremy Carl of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, have been guilty of opposing the other side "just for the sake of opposing."

And Holmstead, who also is an adviser to Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, said it was difficult trying to engage in a discussion of the environment in the current political climate.

Holmstead also reminded the audience that much of the under-developed world needs more energy and "there is a moral and political imperative" to provide that energy.

"And the most cost-effective way of doing that by far is to use coal," he said.

Loris suggested that the best environmental policy is grow these under-developed countries economically "and then let's help them adapt and protect themselves against weather-related problems."

Adaptation to a changing environment might be more productive than trying to change that environment, Holmstead said.

"We need to understand we're not going to be able to solve the problem without imposing [economic] significant costs on ourselves," he said.

Carl pointed out that most environmental legislation -- including the creation of the EPA -- was, in fact, done by Republicans.

"Yet we've been accused of not caring about the environment," he said.

In fact, "conservatives have a lot of say about the environment," Lehrer said. "We believe we can be green and we should be green."