Environmental Protection Off-Stage at Republican Convention

NEW YORK, New York, September 1, 2004 (ENS) - None of the speeches made here in New York have addressed, or even mentioned, the environment. First Lady Laura Bush spoke last night about watching her husband "wrestling with these agonizing decisions that would have such profound consequence for so many lives and for the future of our world."

First Lady Laura Bush addressed the Republican National Convention in Madison Square Garden on Tuesday evening. (Photo courtesy GOP Convention)

Education Secretary Rod Paige defended the No Child Left Behind program under which, he said, "States, not Washington, set the standards. Schools that need assistance get assistance."

Opening the convention on Monday night, Senator John McCain spoke of the necessity of war in Iraq. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D. spoke of medicine and drugs and denigrated trial lawyers.

Senator John McCain of Arizona addressed the convention on Monday evening. (Photo courtesy GOP Convention)

The Republican Party platform, approved by the convention on Monday, includes several statements of environmental policy most related to the supply of energy - support for drilling in the Arctic, for a revival of the nuclear power industry, for clean coal and hydrogen research.

It hails the record of President George W. Bush in "incorporating appropriate labor and environmental concerns into U.S. trade negotiations," and facing with China "shared health and environmental threats, such as the threat of HIV/AIDS, SARS, and other infectious diseases..."

It upholds the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, which declares "private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation." This clause has been used to require compensation when an environmental regulation reduces the value of property or makes any part of a parcel of property unusable. "We oppose efforts to diminish the rights of private citizens to the land they own," the platform states.

The platform urges Congress to pass the President's energy bill, which "includes over 100 recommendations, nearly half of which addressed renewable energy, energy efficiency, and conservation." The policy statement warns that "Recent electricity blackouts, the California energy crisis, natural gas and oil price spikes, and high gasoline prices remind us that only a comprehensive energy policy will produce energy stability for America’s families and businesses.

Delegates on the floor of the Republican National Convention Monday evening. (Photo courtesy GOP Convention)

The policy statement supports FutureGen, a $1 billion initiative to build the world's first zero-emissions fossil fuel plant that integrates carbon sequestration and hydrogen production research.

A hydrogen economy would be of "enormous benefit" and put the United States on "the cutting edge of energy technology," the platform says. The FreedomCar Partnership and Hydrogen Fuel Initiative include $1.7 billion over five years to begin building hydrogen cars and the infrastructure to support them is part of this platform plank.

Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should move ahead immediately using "sophisticated technologies," the Republican platform says.

"Our Party continues to support energy development in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, holds as much as 16 billion barrels of oil – enough to replace oil imports from Saudi Arabia for nearly 20 years. The drilling footprint can be confined to just 2,000 acres (the entire refuge contains 19 million acres), about the size of Washington’s Dulles Airport, on ice roads that melt away in the summer, leaving little trace of human intervention. We have already wasted precious time."

"If the previous Administration had not vetoed the ANWR proposal passed by the Republican Congress in 1995, at this moment ANWR would be producing up to one million barrels of oil a day," the platform states, referring to the administration of President Bill Clinton.

The current President's father, former U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush at the convention. Seated in red is the President's mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush. (Photo courtesy GOP Convention)

Establishment of mandatory, enforceable reliability rules for electric utilities to reduce the likelihood of future blackouts is part of the platform, a reference to the blackout of August 2003 that left some 50 million people in the northeast and Canada without power for up to 48 hours.

Republicans say they support renewable energy through extension of the production tax credit for wind and biomass, as well as efforts to expand the use of biodiesel and ethanol, which can reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil while increasing revenues to farmers.

Nuclear power finds support in the Republican camp. It "provides America with affordable, emissions-free energy. We believe nuclear power can help reduce our dependence on foreign energy and play an invaluable role in addressing global climate change.

President Bush "supports construction of new nuclear power plants through the Nuclear Power 2010 initiative, and continues to move forward on creating an environmentally sound nuclear waste repository," the platform says, referring to the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada for which the Department of Energy is preparing a license application.

The platform plank on communities gives environmental conservation a nod, saying the framework in which communities can flourish "requires access to affordable and accessible health care, protection of America’s environment and natural resources, the maintenance of public safety and prosecution of people who violate the peace of communities, guaranteed rights and equal opportunities for all members of society, and compassionate help for our fellow citizens who are trapped in unhealthy or harmful situations."

And except for the balloons, and the confetti and streamers, that has been the extent of the Republicans' consideration of the environment at the convention.

The 100,000 balloons, plus the 300 pounds of "flame retardant and environmentally sensitive" confetti and streamers, are biodegradable.

Out in the streets of New York, hundreds were arrested again on Tuesday in wave after wave of autonomous, planned but unpermitted direct actions in protest of Republican policies on the environment and the war in Iraq. They stopped traffic, performed street theater and crashed delegate parties.

In the afternoon, a banner was dropped at Port Authority by Bus Riders Against Bush that read, "Four More Months."

Protesters surged through the streets of Manhattan all day on Tuesday. (Photo courtesy Indymedia)

The die-in took place in the evening, blocking traffic at Broadway and 28th Street for an hour until police arrested protesters and took them away.

At the New York Public Library, about half a mile north of the convention at Madison Square Garden, several hundred demonstrators and a foiled banner drop attracted an onslaught of police, wielding metal barricades and arrest nets. The library was shut down as protesters were pushed across the street, where a scene of violence and mass arrests ensued.

Police used nets to arrest protesters, people reportedly broke through the nets, pepper spray was used and a spontaneous street theater piece recalling prisoner abuse at Abu Graib was performed.

Ten people were allowed by the police to wear hoods in protest of the treatment of prisoners. One hooded participant in the action broke onto the MSNBC live set, colliding with its host, Chris Matthews.

New York City Police Department says that as of six o'clock Monday 548 people were arrested since August 26 for incidents related to the Republican National Convention. No figures were given as yet for Tuesday's arrests.