The stunning greening of the California GOP

Martin F Nolan / Boston Globe 1mar01

SACRAMENTO -   FOR RALPH NADER and his followers, 2000 was a year of limited gains. But so far, 2001 is a triumph for the Green Party. The California Republican Party is becoming greener than Kermit and all his cousins, greener than Galway after a spring rain, greener than all the hopes of baseball's spring training.

Making a virtue of necessity, the GOP now touts renewable, energy-saving measures it scorned in the 1970s. The nation's largest and most dispirited GOP faces a future as bleak as last year's lettuce. Governor Gray Davis, a Democrat, is swimming in campaign funds. No incumbent governor here has been defeated since 1942.

For decades, the Republican philosophy could be summed up simply: ''Conservation is for wimps.'' The GOP's notion of a dream car has evolved from a Cadillac Condominium or a Lincoln Town Tank to a sports utility vehicle taller than the Golden Gate Bridge and wider than Connecticut.

But now, the issue of fossil fuels has made California's party feel like a fossil itself. The state's power shortage has forced the party to look for ways to keep the lights on in homes and businesses. James Brulte, the Republican floor leader in the Senate, has sponsored bills subsidizing solar and other renewable sources.

''Building a system of conservation and generation that is capable of relieving the statewide demand for energy is a step that will play a significant role in ending California's energy shortage,'' he said. ''Rewarding consumers for conservation efforts is one of the many positive steps the Legislature can take.''

Endorsing this bill were Davis and the California Public Interest Research Group, not usually cheerleaders for GOP ideas. The Brulte bill provides a 50 percent tax credit for solar and wind projects between 10 and 200 kilowatts. This would cover most homes, apartment complexes, and businesses.

The bill echoes two planks in the platform of the Green Party of California:

''Phase out fossil fuels and convert to renewable sources.

''Use subsidies, incentives, and regulations to encourage the development of renewable sources such as passive solar for heating and cooling, solar water heating, solar electricity, biomass, ocean, wind, and small scale hydro.''

California is far from becoming an eco-Eden. Solar start-ups are pricy and provide about 10 percent of need. But threatened blackouts focus all consumers on the obvious. The sun, which attracted so many here, is a more reliable source than natural gas piped from Texas. Not just in desperation, but as part of a gradual strategy, Republicans have been joining the solar caucus.

''The first speech I ever gave in the Legislature was about solar power,'' says Brulte, who was elected in 1990. Few in the Republican Party are to the right of Brulte, who hails from Rancho Cucamonga, an overwhelmingly white conservative suburb east of Los Angeles. San Bernardino County has ample sunlight, visitors notice. ''We have a lot of sun, yes, and a lot of smog,'' Brulte replies. Kermit the Frog says it's not easy being green. His motto is trumped by that of another legislative leader, Tip O'Neill: All politics is local.

Brulte's job is to both oppose and cooperate. When air-conditioners rev up from here to Arizona in July and August, blackouts may turn Californians against Davis, who has credibly claimed he has inherited the electricity shortage.

When he ran the George W. Bush campaign here last year, Brulte said that ''Ralph Nader is our secret weapon.'' The GOP is now more Naderite than Neanderthal. California now takes seriously the opening questions of the Green Party platform:

''How can we operate human societies with the understanding that we are part of nature, not on top of it? How can we live within the ecological and resource limits of the planet, applying our technological knowledge to the challenge of an energy-efficient economy?''

Martin F. Nolan's e-mail address is martynolan@aol.com