By Maury Tobin

The world lost a great statesman on Saturday. But the death of centenarian and Republican George Shultz also evokes much more.

In 2010, while working on a project regarding Republicans advocating for environmental protection, I had the opportunity to interview
Secretary Shultz by phone while he was in his Stanford University office. We spoke about the idea that environmental stewardship and conservatism should not be strange bedfellows.

You can listen to a piece of the podcast by clicking here.

Eleven years later, America sits at this threshold again. It is working to resolve pressing global policy issues while trying not to demolish the long-standing industries that helped shape America.

It’s telling that I interviewed Secretary Shultz, for the podcast, from my home office. Tobin Communications was a strategic trendsetter long before COVID-19. I was always looking for different ways to present content and to embrace new technology.

It is no secret that America needs rigorous and fluid foreign relations and that climate change and greenhouse emissions have been on the policy agenda for a while now. But Shultz also echoed the importance of the United States being able to have energy independence. He pointed out that it can be problematic relying on resources from, and in turn funding, countries that can be national security threats.

Congress and the Biden Administration will be facing issues like this.

In 2014, the Brookings Institution explained that “a carbon tax and cap-and-trade are opposite sides of the same coin. A carbon tax sets the price of carbon dioxide emissions and allows the market to determine the quantity of emission reductions. Cap-and-trade sets the quantity of emissions reductions and lets the market determine the price.”

Shultz served Republican Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. I also think it’s interesting that my late father-in-law worked for the State Department under Shultz’s leadership and prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Maury Tobin is the president of Tobin Communications, Inc., a firm he founded in 1996 that provides integrated campaign and digital services. Tobin earned both a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and a Master’s Degree in Public Communication at American University.