REPUBLICANS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Once upon a time, between 1995 and 2010 to be precise, there was an active and energetic national organization called Republicans for Environmental Protection.
Such “green Republicans” still do exist, but the organization that they created in 1995 is now a thing of the past. In 2020, a few stalwarts relaunched this website to preserve REP’s history, activities, publications, and policy positions on a wide range of environmental and conservation issues… which are all still relevant, still critical, and even more in need of attention now than before.
For fifteen years, the name Republicans for Environmental Protection told people exactly who we were and what we were all about.
REPUBLICANS. We proudly identified ourselves as Republicans. Many of us actually were elected Republicans!
FOR. Our focus was positive, proactive, forward looking, and science based.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION. Those two words captured our mission in a nutshell. And by environmental protection, of course, we also meant conservation of natural resources… our public lands and native wildlife.
Back then, we Republicans for Environmental Protection also informally called ourselves “the environmental conscience of the GOP.” And if you consider what a conscience does, you’ll realize how apt that description was. A functioning conscience cheers you on when you’ve done something good and scolds you when you’ve done something bad. In hindsight, that’s a perfect description of the role that REP played in the Republican Party.
Sadly, the Republican Party as we knew it no longer exists, and neither does the REP organization.
Our version of the GOP was killed over time, starting in the 1990s with the ravages of a “Contract With America.” It was further degraded by a so-called “Tea Party” funded not by grassroots activists but by rich, powerful, and anti-environmental special interests. And in recent years it was destroyed by a shallow TV personality. The Republican Party is now a cult where good policies and responsible governance no longer matter. The only thing that counts is loyalty to “the leader.”
Today, the sad remnants of our once-proud Republican Party ignore the idea of conservation and environmental protection, which were traditional hallmarks of the true conservatives who made up the Republican Party for well over a hundred years.
Sadly, there is nothing left for us “Green Republicans” in today’s GOP. But here, on this website, we’ve chosen to preserve the record of how for fifteen years we did our best to save both our country’s natural resources and our party’s long and proud tradition of protecting them.