Conservatism in the UK

Guess who said this?:

We have a vision of a different America. It is a vision of an America in which our cars run on electricity; high speed trains whisk us from North to South in less time than it takes to get across greater New York; we produce much more but use much less energy to do it; our power suppliers no longer depend to any great extent on imported oil and gas; our homes require less energy, produce far more of their own energy and are heated by gas we produce from our own agricultural and domestic waste.

It is a vision of a United States which leads the world in new green technologies. Secured against interruptions of supply and volatile prices, our industry can plan for growth. Our national security is guaranteed, regardless of decisions by volatile governments elsewhere to close pipelines or restrict supply. It is a decentralized vision rather than one in which all decisions about our energy future are vested in the government. Through it we play our full part in protecting our planet against the effects of man-made climate change.

Well, nobody said it. Instead I changed the words “Britain” and “centralised” to “America” and “centralized.” But it comes from the UK Conservative Party’s low-carbon economy white paper.

I mention this because David Brooks has a pretty good column urging Republicans to learn from David Cameron that, disappointingly, doesn’t mention anything about climate and energy issues. But if you want to make the point that at the moment European center-right parties are both much more politically successful than the GOP and also much more substantively sensible, then climate and energy is probably the topic where you’ll find the biggest contrast. After all, it’s not just that the Conservatives’ climate and energy issues page looks very different from the Republican one—the Republicans don’t have one at all.