Climate Bill Is Not Dead Yet

I’m not dead yet

The conventional wisdom around Washington is that the climate bill is dead. It’s an obituary that’s been written before, but ask anyone in the political establishment and they will tell you that this time it’s for real. Ask any member of the insider DC press corps, they’ll tell you that Scott Brown’s upset Senate victory in the Massachusetts was the final nail in a coffin they have been hammering relentlessly all year.

They are wrong.

Passing comprehensive clean energy and climate reform is not going to be easy, but who ever thought it would be? The death of climate legislation may fit into the standard media narrative and make for a nice story, but it’s not true and here’s a few reasons why:

1. Real Bipartisanship

Unlike the months long health care “negotiations” Max Baucus conducted with hostile Republicans, the Senate climate bill has bipartisan participation from the get go. Conservative Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and self-appointed swing vote Joe Lieberman (?-CT) have teamed up with John Kerry to craft a bi-(tri?)-partisan proposal to cap carbon, and Susan Collins (R-ME) has put forward her own cap-and-dividend approach.

There are positives and negatives to this bipartisan route. Will the compromise bill that emerges include unsavory trade-offs (i.e. nuclear title, “clean” coal, drilling permits)? Almost certainly. But as painful as these compromises may be, they also pave the road to 60 votes for a price on carbon. Lindsay Graham might be an unlikely climate hero, but his involvement could be the difference between disastrous inaction and a cap on carbon pollution. (For more on this, see some cogent analysis from Joe Romm)

2. Obama’s Getting in the Game

A great deal of anger has been directed at the White House for their failure to visibly lead on climate. Much of it is deserved. However, there are signs that President Obama and the administration are ready to step out in front on this issue.

Previously, we’ve seen a lot of behind the scenes maneuvering from Obama and other climate leaders in the White House such as Lisa Jackson, Carol Browner, and Steven Chu, as well as some stronger public engagement including last month’s Youth Clean Energy Forum.

In an editorial this weekend, the New York Times called for Obama to make a forceful argument for clean energy jobs and climate action in his State of the Union speech. Early indications suggest that climate will, in fact, be a prominent component of Wednesday’s address to Congress.

In addition, the White House has a trump card of its own – the ongoing effort by Lisa Jackson and the EPA to limit carbon pollution through their independent regulatory authority. The threat of EPA action serves as the stick to compliment the carrot of Senate negotiations, and as demonstrated by Lisa Murkowski’s Dirty Air Act, is clearly making big polluters nervous.

3. You

The politics and policies are complicated, but there is also one big, simple reason to be optimistic about climate action: all of you.

The youth climate movement has been out in front, aggressively making the case for our clean energy future. The movement is getting bigger, louder, and more organized by the day. Even with Washington’s usual suspects ready (perhaps eager) to leave climate for dead, rather than scale back, youth climate leaders plan only to ramp up.

Never underestimate the power of passionate, organized activists to rapidly reshape the narrative and reconfigure the conventional wisdom.

Just last week, thousands of citizens contacted their senators to oppose the Dirty Air Act. On Thursday, Lisa Murkowski took to the Senate floor and not only directly addressed the Dirty Air Act label, but also announced she was indefinitely postponing the vote on her proposal. This partial victory was only the beginning of the fight (stay tuned for more!) but it demonstrates the impact targeted activist pressure can have on the legislative process.

It’s easy to feel frustrated or powerless in the face of the perfect storm of bloviating and bullshit which passes for American politics. Don’t.

It’s time to double down. Join our Organize to be Heard Challenge or take part in any of the other amazing youth climate action going on across the country. Figure out who’s organizing on your campus and get involved. Recruit your friends. Enlist your acquaintances. Draft that one guy you met that one time (yeah, him too).

Do whatever you can to make your voice heard. It’s our clean energy future and no one is going to secure it for us. We have a lot of work ahead, but someone needs to tell the DC establishment that climate isn’t dead yet.

P.S. Though his spirit is admirable, please resist all comparisons to a certain Black Knight