After 20 years of dithering about climate change by the politicians in Washington, the EPA finally acted. Now the politicians are preparing to vote today on a return to at least another two years of dithering.
UPDATE: The vote has been delayed – keep up the pressure! Call your Senator: the U.S. Capitol Switchboard main number is (202) 224-3121
The Senate is set to vote today on a group of bills, all of which would in one way or another cut of the EPA’s carbon regulation at the knees. The Senate Republicans – who nearly to a man don’t believe in climate change – will be joined by a group of Democrats who don’t seem to believe in much of anything.
Here’s a good summary of what’s going down today from Dave Hawkins at the Natural Resources Defense Council:
The Clean Air Act directs EPA to adopt sensible measures that will reduce waste and lead to adoption of modern, efficient technology in our businesses – actions that will make us more competitive in a world that takes protecting the climate seriously. But thanks to fear-mongers and professional liars, there is a mantra echoing in the halls of Congress that enforcing the Clean Air Act to cut carbon pollution will weaken the economy and cost jobs. So the smirking duo of Senators McConnell and Inhofe think they have found a way to discomfit their political rivals by spinning a vote to protect the climate as a vote against economic recovery and jobs.
The fact that this is nonsense ought to be enough for serious men and women to say so and to talk straight about what is really at stake – putting an end to our gambling with the stable climate on which our civilization depends. But today’s politics being what it is, a number of otherwise responsible Senators seem to be motivated by the fear that a lie with a megaphone is more powerful than the truth.
Compromise?
President Obama had attempted to to offer a pile of olive branches to the GOP, including:
- Expanded offshore drilling (which was short-circuited by the BP oil spill)
- $36 billion in loan guarantees for the nuclear industry
- And now, opening up 7,500 acres for coal mining in Wyoming.
But Republicans haven’t negotiated so much as demanded, after famously stating that they are totally uninterested in compromising.
Why is Majority Leader Harry Reid even allowing this to come to a vote? He doesn’t have to, after all. He’s the leader, he gets to set the agenda.
There is word around Capital Hill that the Democrats are offering (up front) to accept a reigning in of the EPA in exchange for the GOP accepting $30 billion in overall budget cuts, rather than the $60 billion they’re proposing.
We’ll see how that works out for them.
-> Next Page: What’s on the table
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About Jeremy Bloom
The gap between what governments spend on subsidizing fossil fuels and clean energy should narrow considerably in years ahead. Support for renewables and biofuels will grow as funds for clean energy accelerates and the amount governments such as China spend to keep fossil fuel prices artificially low. Simply put, less government support is needed to make these dirty sources of energy more affordable to populations around the globe – Jason Kim.