Comment: Andrew Sullivan: Hawks, hippies and the holy unite to turn America greenA couple of decades ago a young Tory wannabe policy analyst wrote a pamphlet called Greening the Tories. It was an attempt to argue that being in favour of environmental protection and energy conservation was not necessarily a liberal or statist idea.
Conserving is, well, conservative. Keeping the air clean, cars efficient and energy affordable benefits everyone, regardless of ideology. Why, in any case, should conservatives be so hostile to environmentalism? If done right — with market incentives and smarter technology rather than with crude regulation — it could be a conservative vote-winner.
Well, the idea didn’t get far. I wrote the pamphlet more as a thought experiment than as a blueprint. But if you live long enough even too-clever-by-half post-adolescents can find solace.
So here’s a simple question: who do you think are now advocates for new energy technologies and environmental regulation? Here’s the surprising answer from America: a motley collection of neocon hawks, Christian evangelicals and right-wing isolationists...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-1562286,00.html