Greenwashing

It says something about our values here in the Pacific Northwest that no one can get elected without going green. We are a water-conserving, Prius-driving, bottle/can/paper-recycling, salmon-restoring eco-friendly people. And candidates know it.

Presidential candidate John McCain stopped by for a nature walk and a conversaton about limiting greenhouse gases. Gubernatorial challenger Dino Rossi drives a hybrid, and while he won’t say that global warming is real, he will say that something real needs to be done about it. U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert has been handed the title of "the greenest Republican in Congress," and while its more plausible that Reichert is green with envy at the effectiveness ratings of his colleagues, the group giving him the award calls itself Republicans for Environmental Protection.

Republicans for Environmental Protection? Environmentalists have a long history with the Democrats, born of common interests and cooperative tactics, and it’s a partnership that has served both well. With the endorsements of the Washington Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, and more to follow, Governor Chris Gregoire – a former director of the state Department of Ecology - will surely maintain and capitalize on that partnership. Environmental endorsements of democrats have become so common, so expected, that they’re hardly newsworthy anymore.

But environmental endorsements of republicans, now that’s news! If the greening of the Republican Party is real, then we shouldn’t be so surprised. It would be a nod to science, would show responsive learning, and would mean better cooperation and a stronger commitment to environmental protection. If Republicans are truly going green, we should see both parties agreeing on the fundamentals of global warming and pollution in Puget Sound, and we should see stronger laws and incentives to limit carbon and prevent pollution. The nagging suspicion, however, is that the greening of the Republicans is not real. Like the oil company ads showing happy workers monitoring windmills and solar panels, this greenwashing is superficial, temporary, and designed to make you feel good about buying more of what Republicans are selling.

The fact that a green Republican is treated as a sensational oddity, by the voters and the press, makes it much harder to believe that one could exist in real life.