Republicans For Environmental Protection - Mission

Mission

REP’s stated mission is: "To resurrect the GOP's great conservation tradition and to restore natural resource conservation and sound environmental protection as fundamental elements of the Republican Party's vision for America."

REP’s slogan, "Conservation is Conservative," is based on the traditional conservative philosophy of writers and thinkers such as British statesman Edmund Burke, President Theodore Roosevelt, and authors Russell Kirk, author of "The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot," and Richard Weaver, author of "Ideas Have Consequences." REP argues in its literature that conservation and responsible environmental stewardship are core conservative values that necessarily extend from concepts such as prudence, personal responsibility, thrift and Burke’s view that society is a partnership among past, present and future generations.

REP cites the conservation achievements of Republican leaders, including Abraham Lincoln’s initial protection of Yosemite Valley and Theodore Roosevelt's establishment of national forests, monuments, parks, and wildlife refuges. Other Republican leaders often cited by REP for their conservation records include Presidents Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, Senators John Chafee, William Roth and John McCain, Congressman John Saylor, and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.