The perfect must not become the enemy of the mediocre. The American Clean Energy & Security Act -- aka Waxman-Markey, HR 2454 -- is mediocre. It doesn't rise to the level of "good." I've labeled it as "diluted to homeopathic proportions." Polls here run neck & neck as between grudgingly passing it and scrapping it and starting over.
Nevertheless, it's what we have, and I'm going to support it. I'm going to call Senators, and I'm going to ask you to do the same...for political reasons, not scientific reasons. More below the fold.
If you don't know what the future holds if this bill becomes law, look to the past. There's a specific historical precedent for this bill: the success of the Clean Air Act amendments.
The Clean Air Act became law in 1970 and was amended in 1977. When I studied it circa 1982-83, the general consensus among enviro scientists was that it was useless, toothless, and worthless -- much as enviros disdain ACES. Specifically, it wasn't doing a darn thing to stop acid rain (generally caused by sulfur dioxide emissions), which was a big problem at the time. The 1990 amendment put some teeth into the law. It created a system of emissions trading (sound familiar?), required sulfur dioxide-emitting factories to clean up, and voila! now acid rain is far less of a problem. For specifics on how acid rain is much, much less of a threat than it was, I invite -- nay, implore -- you to read jamess' well written and well sourced Do you miss acid rain?, as good a diary as I've seen here.
The analogy of the Clean Air Act amendments has two important points. First, a weak bill that becomes law lays the regulatory groundwork. A weak law can be strengthened by amendments later on, while a bill sufficiently strong enough to satisfy the purest of the purity trolls has no political chance of becoming law. Second, we must dare to hope. We have solved seemingly intractable problems before. By passing and enforcing the 1990 amendments, we have largely curtailed acid rain. By banning CFCs, we have shrunk the hole in the ozone layer. By passing laws against DDT, we have saved some endangered species. I believe that American ingenuity can go a long way toward remediating the worst impacts of global warming. I will dare to hope that this law will matter.
Now for the details on how to support this bill: Senator Barbara Boxer, chair of the Environment & Public Works committee, will introduce a bill very, very soon, possibly early this week. Five other Senate committees are also expected to consider the bill: Agriculture, Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources, Finance, and Foreign Relations. Midwestern and Rust Belt Democratic Senators are said to be the key to passage of the bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants the six committees to finish their work by September 18. The bill will be voted on in the Senate at some point in the fall, and, it is hoped, give America some credibility at the Copenhagen treaty negotiations in December.
We have two and a half months to strengthen the bill in committee. We will be outspent 16 to 1, so we will have to yell 16 times louder. Over the next days and weeks, diaries developed at DK Greenroots will spell out at whom to yell louder, when, and why. Join us there if you dare to hope.