Climate Action and Senate Politics Don't
Mix
Clint Wilder
This is a column that I hope I can look back on in a few months and
say, "I was wrong." But I have just about given up on the
U.S. Senate passing any kind of legislation this year that
will move the U.S. toward an all-important price on carbon.
As most people in clean tech know by now, South Carolina
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), two days before
the rollout of the climate and energy bill that bears his
name, withdrew his support because Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid said he would also make federal immigration
reform a legislative priority. So the ballyhooed
Kerry-Graham-Lieberman bill remains stalled, and with it
probably the hopes of meaningful Senate action on climate
and clean energy to follow the House passage of the
Waxman-Markey bill nearly a year ago. The political
blogosphere is atwitter with speculation about Sen. Reid's
true intentions, the chances of patching up with Sen.
Graham, how the White House should play it, and more of the
usual insider minutiae. I don't want to hear it.
It pains me to say this after the historic 2008 elections,
but I have to dust off the old refrain from the George W.
Bush years: We can't wait for Washington to lead on
greenhouse-gas reduction and the transition to a
clean-energy economy. This is not just about the latest
kerfuffle between Sens. Graham and Reid. Given the extreme
pressure on Graham from his fellow, anti-carbon cap
Republicans, one plausible explanation is that he was
looking for any excuse to pull back from his previous
support.
And even with Graham on board, the bill's prospects look
dicey. Remember, the Senate is the place where a 60-vote
threshold has become the rule instead of a rare exception;
where it takes three days of stalls and threats to even
start debate on financial reform; and where even a
resolution praising Earth Day founder Sen. Gaylord Nelson
had to overcome a 'hold' by Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom
Coburn, who (I'm not making this up)
objected to language critical of DDT and Sen. Joe McCarthy.
I'm not pessimistic or cynical by nature, but I've lost most
of my faith in a federal political system so heavily
weighted in favor of inertia and inaction. The CO2 buildup
in the atmosphere won't wait for silly political games, and
neither will the global clean-tech economy that's
increasingly tilting towards China. The more urgent the need
for federal action, it seems, the more the forces that want
to preserve the energy status quo dig in and obstruct.
So what's the answer? Clean-tech leadership from states,
cities, and business. And in those areas, thankfully, there
is better news. Last month on Earth Day, the state of
Massachusetts released a report prepared by Clean Edge,
A Future of Innovation and Growth, that assesses
Massachusetts' clean-energy leadership and ranks the
nation's Top 15 clean-energy states at this point in time.
Although states could do much more, it's encouraging to see
their action across the country on efficiency standards,
financing innovations like property-assessed clean energy,
and dozens of other good policy initiatives.
As for the opposition canard that a carbon cap will harm the
economy, scores of business leaders strongly disagree. Four
days after Sen. Graham's flip-flop, more than 170 companies
around the country
signed a letter from the We Can Lead coalition calling
on the Senate to get a climate/energy bill back on track.
These businesses include both clean-tech companies poised to
benefit directly, and corporate giants like eBay, Gap, Levi
Strauss, Nike, Starbucks, Symantec, and Virgin America.
Companies like this and countless others know that carbon
reduction, energy efficiency, and clean-energy production
create the best path to innovation, global competitiveness,
and job creation. They're calling for Senate action, but
they're not waiting to act themselves. No one should,
because this Senate, with its dysfunctional and
obstructionist track record, won't deliver anything
meaningful on climate and clean energy this year.
Now please prove me wrong.
---
Wilder is Clean Edge's senior editor, co-author of The
Clean Tech Revolution, and a blogger about clean-tech
issues for the Green section of The Huffington Post. E-mail
him at
wilder@cleanedge.com and follow him on Twitter at
Clint_Wilder.