Issue Paper

Energy/Environmental Policy Issue Paper

            As the world of the twenty-first century advances into further realms of industrial and scientific advancement, it is simultaneously faced with just such actions’ greatest detriment- a directly related depletion of the resources which make those motions possible. How to regulate what is left and how to go about gaining more are both issues that are hotly contended and largely polarized, both by the effects of the media and the beliefs of the two major political parties in relation to the issue. In appropriately opposing viewpoints on what must be done, the Democratic Party and Republican Party have developed generally irreconcilable platforms in the debate- the liberally-minded Democrats support the idea that an economy can be both successful and environmentally minded through the creation of policies that place regulations on environmentally damaging companies and help fund programs designed to create alternative energy sources; Republicans favor a system that is not so dependent on government regulation but is instead based on the actions of private individuals through offering incentives to businesses and property owners who are environmentally-conscious as well as increasing our stores of energy sources (coal and oil as well as, to a lesser extent, alternative sources).

            The Democratic viewpoint on the issue is largely defined by their belief in a “larger” government. As a whole, the Party derides the previous view posed that a government must make a “choice between a healthy economy and a healthy environment”, but instead further the view that the two can advance simultaneously, with new technologies that can protect the environment being able to offer more American jobs. It is similarly supported that through government protection, lands should be guarded from invasive drilling for oil and gas and that as a whole through government intervention and support of substitute programs dependence on foreign supplies of oil should be reduced. On the energy front, it is the Party’s opinion that support of large oil companies should be largely removed, and that the money garnered from these suspended subsidies can be put into programs designed to increase the amount of alternative, independent energy sources. As a whole, energy and environmental policy should be fueled by government regulation and tax funded creation of environmentally-friendly industries and infrastructure.

            Republicans oppose many such actions, believing that, though there need not be a choice between a “healthy economy and a healthy environment”, a prospering economy drives a clean environment. As such, much of their policy focuses on offering monetary incentives to private property owners and businesses to encourage them to be more environmentally conscious. A basic belief of their platform is that “people who own the land also protect it”. As such, through “providing market-based incentives”, environmental prosperity can be assured by the private sector, and not by government regulation. Focus is likewise placed on offering incentives to businesses to be environmentally-friendly without actually placing laws requiring them to do so (keeping government interference to a minimum). To reduce dependence on foreign oil, it is believed that America’s own untapped sources should be accessed and the methods of its use made more efficient, as well as offering larger tax credits to businesses and individuals who expand the use of alternative energy sources. As a general rule, the Party supports efforts which further environmental policy through benefits to property owners, which would encourage them to be more environmentally-friendly in the interests of efficiency and profit without actually imposing much government regulation or creating environmentally-protective public infrastructure from tax money.