What Motivates a Republican?

President Carter not only set a goal of obtaining 20 percent of our energy from solar power by the year 2000, but he installed solar panels on the grounds of the white house. Reagan tore them down.


This from the New York Times (J. David Goodman):

During the energy crisis of the 1970s, Jimmy Carter installed solar panels for a heating system on the roof of the West Wing. “No one can ever embargo the sun or interrupt its delivery to us,” he said during the dedication. The panels were removed by Ronald Reagan when he moved in, though they worked fine (and did for more than a decade, supplying hot water to a dining hall at Unity College in Maine.)

I first read about this in an article by Robert Redford on the Huffington Post.

How can the Republicans be so against a clean source of energy that frees us from countries like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela? This is not rhetorical, I want to know!

I have a (very) educated guess: money and personal gain. It is not in Reagan's, Bush's and other Republicans best personal interest to see American renewable energy take hold over oil, coal or nuclear energy. What else could be the reason?

We all know how in bed the Bush's are with Saudi Arabia. I'm not old enough to remember Reagan's reason for removing the panels put up by Carter after the energy crisis of the 70's, but I keep hearing about scientists that were paid by the Bush administration to refute global warming and the resistance by present Republicans toward renewable energy and ask why? Money and personal gain is the only answer that keeps coming up.

My Republican friends and readers, am I missing something? I heard a report this morning about how milting glaciers are much worse than even imagined and I can't reconcile that the selfish motivation of personal wealth would move a Republican leader is disregard the well being of our nation and its people, but I can't find any other reason. Maybe that is why I'm not a Republican...