Part 4 in a series
Not long ago, the Republican Party had an environmental conscience. Before the days of the Orwellian-named Clear Skies Act and Healthy Forests Initiative, there was President Theodore Roosevelt, who created the National Park system, and President Richard Nixon, who signed into law the Clean Air & Clean Water Acts as well as the Environmental Protection Agency.
George Bush has been, as were his biological (G.H.W. Bush) and ideological (Reagan) fathers, an enemy to any laws which seek to protect the environment, despite the fact that most Americans want stronger, not weaker environmental protection. There was a time when most Republicans understood that the environment is more than just a place for hunting, mining, drilling and dumping. Teddy Roosevelt once said:
"Conservation is a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of ensuring the safety and continuance of the nation.
I do not intend that our natural resources shall be exploited by the few against the interests of the many."
Thank god for the conservation-minded Republicans at REP America, "the national grassroots organization of Republicans for Environmental Protection." It's encouraging to know that there are still good Republicans out there, and that conservationist Republicans may be endangered species, but are not yet extinct.