Climate Change Bill Has a Coming Out Party
Well, I’m guessing they didn’t call it a coming out party. But Democrats in the House of Representatives did unveil the already heavily discussed Waxman-Markey bill on Friday, formally known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act. It is 932 pages long. And no, I haven’t read all of it. So don’t feel too bad.
The bill represents the largest—or perhaps ONLY—centralized effort to-date aimed at substantially cutting greenhouse gas emissions as a way to mitigate climate change. And while I haven’t read all of the dense tome, I have read the first page (among a few others), and it’s quite a page. Immediately after it says “A BILL,” in all capitals, it contains the four major goals of the bill. These are as follows (in case you haven’t looked at the above image yet):
- Create clean energy jobs
- Achieve energy independence
- Reduce global warming pollution
- Transition to a clean energy economy
See that third one there? Just sorta thrown in there, not as high up as number one, or as memorably last as number four? I know this isn’t a shock or anything, given how long discussions surrounding this bill have been floating around, but I still feel like this needs a moment of reflection: the federal government of the United States is attempting to “REDUCE GLOBAL WARMING POLLUTION.” I feel like I’m watching my not-yet-born son learn how to throw a baseball or something, except he’s 26 and I’ve been trying to teach him how to do it for two decades.
Whether or not this particular incarnation of a climate change-mitigating bill goes through (and this incarnation absolutely will not go through), it is an amazing breath of fresh air (zing!) to actually see the government take this seriously. As recently as 2006, former President Bush actually said the following:
“I think we have a problem on global warming. I think there is a debate about whether it’s caused by mankind or whether it’s caused naturally, but it’s a worthy debate.”
One of the funniest parts of that quote is that he said it to People Magazine. Anyway. As excited as I am that climate change and its potential catastrophic effects may finally be starting to trump politics, the formal introduction of the bill in Congress by no means indicates that anything is actually going to happen just yet. In fact, according to an article from the AFP, Republicans plan to offer as many as 449 amendments to the bill when formal discussions begin on Monday. I’m no expert on how legislation is pushed through Congress, but that sure sounds like a lot.
Waxman-Markey’s main function as a climate change mitigation bill is to create a cap-and-trade system limiting overall emissions but allowing the market to set the price of permits for those emissions. Its stated goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 (*cough * not enough *cough cough *). I remain unsold as to how that is better than a carbon tax, but for the moment, I will bask in the glow of those few short words emanating from the suddenly green halls of Congress: “Reduce global warming pollution.”
Yes, lets.
Yes, let’s invest in wind energy that is not viable in the South or Mid-west at all, is costing Spain an average of $ 600 K per job (corn-based ethanol anyone?) and last but not least will require thousands of miles of ugly gray transmission lines to be built. Who wants those in their neighborhood?
Meanwhile, we could retrofit every hydro-electric dam in America for $ 1 billion and produce more new and very cheap energy than 250,000 windmills. You gotta love smart politicians.
[...] think the fact that the government may be able to get something done to begin reducing emissions is cause for celebration. And Joe Romm at the indispensable Climate Progress has an interesting takedown of some of [...]
[...] and a number of other energy-related measures, but it seems a sad and regressive alternative to Waxman-Markey, which may reach a floor vote in the House by next week. [...]