By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
Democrats used to own the environmental issue, grabbing votes from party loyalists and independent voters when they stressed their plans to curb global warming.
It could also differentiate Republican presidential contenders from Bush administration policies that have left the United States isolated among the world's biggest developed countries.
"Republicans lost in 2006 because independents abandoned our party," Mehlman said at a political discussion several weeks before the February 5 "Super Tuesday" vote.
Economic conservatives, traditionally Republicans, view technological solutions as a way to create wealth and jobs. Some corporate leaders have backed a federal limit on carbon emissions to prevent a patchwork of state laws.
National security conservatives argue that reducing dependence on foreign oil would cut off funding for anti-U.S. elements in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Bush has said the Kyoto plan, which expires in 2012, would put the United States at a disadvantage if fast-growing developing countries like China and India were exempt from its requirements.
BIPARTISAN SUPPORT
By contrast, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won last month's Republican primary in Michigan -- where his father served as governor and where the Big Three automakers are based -- after taking aim at McCain's support for increased fuel efficiency, saying this would hurt the U.S. auto industry.
To do this, the states need a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency, which has yet to be granted. McCain, Huckabee and Romney said at a candidates' debate they supported the waiver, though Romney later modified his answer.
"The clear bipartisan support for capping global warming pollution should be a wake-up call for Congress," said Tony Kreindler of the non-partisan group Environmental Defense.
"Pollsters put the environment in this little box and pretend that it doesn't bleed over into other issues," Sandretti said in a telephone interview. He noted, as Mehlman did, that climate change is tied to national security, and added that it was also linked to the U.S. energy future.
(Editing by Howard Goller)
