Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
sovereignty over electricity generation and distribution, in practice federal
inluence is rarely absent.
7.6.2 Governing Party Ideology
Two political parties—the Republican Party and the Democratic Party—have
dominated American politics. Ideologically, the Republican Party can be consid-
ered as embracing right of center ideals while the Democratic Party embraces
ideals considered more left of center. Among the electorate, support for the
two parties is very close to being evenly split. his has been illustrated by the
last four federal elections (in 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012), where the popular
vote separating winning and losing parties was 0%, 3%, 7%, and 4% respec-
tively. In fact, it is only through the unique electoral vote system in the United
States that either party has managed to establish clear legislative majorities.
As a consequence of a divided electorate, the platforms of both parties tend to
exhibit centrist leanings in the hope of enticing swing voters—moderate sup-
porters within opposing parties who might switch alliances.
Although both parties have centrist tendencies, there are clear policy
preferences which tend to stem from party ideology. Republican ideology
tends to favor (in theory at least) smaller government and less govern-
ment interference in the economy, preferring to leave as much as possible
to free market forces. Democratic ideology accepts the theoretical eicien-
cies attributed to free-market economies but also harbors a tenet that gov-
ernment should be more actively involved in the economy to ensure that
negative externalities associated with free market activity do not harm less
privileged segments of society.
In regard to energy policy, there tends to be a perception that Republicans
favor conventional energy technologies, while Democrats are more support-
ive of a transition to renewable technologies. his is an inaccurate general-
ization that tends to be supported by anecdotes such as Republican Ronald
Reagan's removal of solar panels (that were installed under the Democratic
Carter Administration) from the roof of the White House and Democrat
Barack Obama's decision to reinstall solar panels on the roof when he
took oice. 81 Although there is evidence that Republicans have historically
favored conventional energy interests—and indeed, the majority of lobbyist
funds from fossil fuel interests go to Republican politicians—the reality is
that Republicans have historically supported conventional energy technolo-
gies because conventional energy has been the least expensive. When one
harbors a free-market ideology, anything that enhances domestic competi-
tiveness is desirable, including policies that reduce the cost of energy—a key
Search WWH ::




Custom Search