June 8, 2010
With the Gulf of Mexico oil spill reviving prospects for an energy debate in the Senate this summer, leading lawmakers are dusting off a bipartisan climate change proposal that could upstage the comprehensive bill recently unveiled by John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn.
This is a tale of two bills—a tale that illuminates how policy-making may unfold under the most progressive administration, and most Democratic Congress, in a generation. And it’s not a tale with an especially happy ending.
OPPONENTS OF health-care reform like to point out that it will reshape one-sixth of the U.S. economy. But there's another big legislative push, overshadowed by health care, that would directly affect an even larger chunk: the effort to pass a climate-change bill.
A bipartisan Senate bill that proposes an alternative way for implementing a carbon emissions reduction program would create minimal disparity among states and would be financially beneficial for the majority of Americans, according to a new report.
The most important addition that Senators Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman can make to the climate bill is a refund provision similar to the Cantwell-Collins proposal. Without some mechanism to compensate Americans for rising energy prices, middle and lower income families will be stuck with the tab for our transition to cleaner energy, which is both bad policy and bad politics.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
CLIMATE CHANGE legislation, according to conventional wisdom, is all but dead for the year. It fell victim to Senate gridlock, yawning gaps between lawmakers over how and even whether to tackle the issue and President Obama's decision last year to place it third on his list of priorities, after the stimulus and health care.
