Last Friday, Henry Waxman spoke at UCLA on Climate Change Forum: Creating Security & Prosperity for the 21st Century. Clean energy advocates, health care reform advocates and health care reform teabaggers both appeared outside, but the more important information came from inside.
Henry Waxman doesn't sound impressed by the bill bearing his name, Waxman-Markey (aka HR 2454, aka American Clean Energy & Security Act, aka climate change legislation, aka cap & trade). And he's right. He told the panel:
"I would have liked a more aggressive approach," Waxman said, but the bill had to face political realities.
"So what we did is look to California's example. ... We can strengthen the renewable standards over time. The essential thing is to get something in place and get going with this now, as California has done."
Waxman's solution is twofold: the Senate should pass a better bill, and it should pass it this year. As he told the Senate: "Get your act together. Get a bill passed."
Waxman is only acknowledging the reality of his 98 lb weakling bill after coal state representative bullies kicked sand all over it. However, it did ultimately pass -- the first time ever that a bill regulating carbon emissons has passed either house of Congress. Waxman-Markey has a few good points: it includes long-term emissions limits, a sound structure, effective cost-management tools, generous investment in public benefits, and strong emphasis on development of low-carbon energy technologies. However, it also gives away 85% of the store in the form of pollution permits, reserving only 15% to be auctioned off. Waxman-Markey requires carbon emissions to be cut 17% by 2020 from 2005 levels and 80% by 2050, a dilution of the original bill calling for 20% reduction by 2020.
So, with a counterpart yet to be introduced in the Senate and health care reform mired in a morass, why is Henry Waxman urging that his own landmark bill, ACES, should be strengthened in the Senate and passed this year?
We don't have the luxury of time: Neither the politics nor the planet permit us to wait any longer. Politically, Representative Jay Inslee told us at NN09 that Obama's only chance to pass transformative legislation is this year: next year Congress will be focusing on midterm elections, and after that they'll all be in 2012 campaign mode. And as for the planet, the news seems to get grimmer all the time, from Arctic ocean methane plumes to ocean water temperatures breaking records to extreme wildfires in Siberia...well, if I were to list every instance of chaos caused by climate in the last few years, this would be a very long diary. Suffice to say that here's 100 reasons why global warming wrecks all the fun.
A bad bill can be strengthened later: It's a lot easier to amend a bad bill later on after it's been enacted than it is to get the initial bill passed. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the first civil rights law since Reconstruction, and it wasn't very effective, but it paved the way for the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act. Do you miss acid rain? The original Clean Air Act of 1970 was toothless, but the 1990 amendment has made acid rain a thing of the past. On the other hand, with the notable exception of the Eighteenth Amendment, laws are rarely weakened and even more rarely repealed.
Political capital at home: ACES is President Obama's climate change policy, for better or worse. It's one of his two signature pieces of legislation, along with health care reform. Health care reform is important, but while we were focusing on health care reform, Waxman-Markey turned into a porkfest for coal and oil. That can't happen again in the Senate -- and it won't, if we yell louder.
Political capital abroad in Copenhagen: It will be hard for the United States to claim a leadership role at the global climate talks in Copenhagen this year if its Senate can't get anything done.
Can the Senate strengthen ACES? Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Tom Carper (D-DE), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Arlen Specter (D-PA), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) think the Senate can. Avaaz Action Factory thinks the bill can be made stronger, with harder oversight of coal plants, with better funding for clean technology, and faster emission targets (pic of Mogmaar!).
Specifically, the bill can:
* bar future coal plants completely!
* give us clean energy and clean jobs
* let the EPA keep doing its job
* let states enact stricter caps if they wish
* help us sustain our way of life
* help us attain energy security
And Henry Waxman would not regret having his name attached to that bill.