Historic Climate and Energy Bill Brings Out The Green Troops

Green policy wonks are transfixed by the goings on in Washington DC today, as HR 2454 moves through the political chop that makes up the roiling waters on any given day in the United States House of Representatives. Leading the legislative management rowing crew of the process in the House are Reps. Waxman and Markey. They are not alone as many hands are on the oars in multi-sector push to speed the bill out of committee and towards resolution by Memorial Day. The official blast from Markey's office reports that: "Waxman, Markey Introduce “H.R. 2454, The American Clean Energy and Security Act Energy & Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman and Energy & Environment Subcommittee Chairman Edward J. Markey introduced “H.R. 2454, The American Clean Energy and Security Act.” The Energy and Commerce Committee will begin markup of the bill on Monday, May 18, 2009, at 1:00 p.m., and will complete consideration before the Memorial Day recess. “This bill marks the dawn of the clean energy age,” said Subcommittee Chairman Markey. “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to revive our economy and create millions of good-paying clean energy jobs. After months of hearings and discussions with my colleagues, I am pleased that we have produced a bill that has widespread support from all regions of the country.”

Supporters of the bill, which is still undergoing revision, include an unlikely alliance of environmental, labor and corporate entities. At the same time, as details of the bill were made public, critics and supporters are lining up on both sides of the bill, either for or against various provisions. Supporters include The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The Environmental Defense Fund and other organizations. Greenpeace and other green groups have come out against the compromise bill, posting a gallery of thumbnail images of supposed conservative Democrats who are "working with industry" to weaken the bill. The opposition also centers around the claim that greenhouse gas emissions do not line up with the science of global warming and are too low. The Union of Concerned Scientists pointed out the silver lining in the bill, as a spokesperson notes to GreenInc., a New York Times blog :
"... Alden Meyer, the strategy and policy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, who is attending a United Nations climate-change meeting in Bonn this week, said in a statement, that the proposed legislation would help to position the United States ahead for international climate negotiations.

As opposed to the experience in Kyoto in 1997, other countries now are seeing real support in the Congress for binding limits on heat-trapping emissions. This improves the prospects for a new global agreement at the Copenhagen summit this December. The draft would also set aside money to help developing countries protect their forests. Such financing can deliver significant emissions reductions and foster the kind of international cooperation we need to adopt and implement an effective climate treaty."

Al Gore sent encouraging words, and plans to send his "We Can Solve It" campaign into action to organize support for the HR 2454. The We website claims to have over 2 million supporters.

Energy and Environment News (subscription at headline) also reports that:

"Several key House Democrats endorsed a major energy and global warming proposal pending this week before the Energy and Commerce Committee, putting the panel's leaders on the brink of the majority needed to pass the measure.

During opening statements at today's markup, Reps. John Dingell of Michigan, Gene Green of Texas, Bobby Rush of Illinois, Bart Gordon of Tennessee and G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina all signaled they planned to vote for the bill from Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.).

"This is a good bill, and I intend to support it," said Dingell, the former committee chairman ousted in November by Waxman."

Nobel Prize Winners are entering the policy waters and Nobelist Paul Krugman is in up to his chest. In his NYT column he puts his marker down with Al Gore. Krugman states:

"I’m with Mr. Gore. The legislation now on the table isn’t the bill we’d ideally want, but it’s the bill we can get — and it’s vastly better than no bill at all."