NEWS
Analysis: GOP bandwagon on greenhouse gas
02/22/2007
Analysis: GOP bandwagon on greenhouse gas
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 22 (UPI)—When Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., met the media on the docks of Los Angeles this week to talk energy with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, it was a sure sign that the Republicans have gotten their ducks in a row when it comes to climate change.
The senator, who is expected to throw his hat into the presidential ring in the not-too-distant future, agreed Wednesday with Schwarzenegger's ambitious plans to curb greenhouse gases from the West Coast, giving further affirmation to the observation that the GOP and its business allies back East are aboard the climate-change bandwagon.
"The debate over climate change should be over," McCain said. "Climate change is taking place and it's largely due to human activity."
That being said, the process of forging a national policy on global warming in the United States continued to gain momentum at the federal level in a way that ideally could produce a policy that won't be distorted the partisan crucible of presidential politics. By using the recent U.N. report on climate change as what marketers refer to as "a call to action," the issue has been largely but not entirely taken off table as a Democratic cause that would appeal to younger and environmentally concerned voters.
"If you ask young people in America what the most important issues in their future are, they'll tell you that climate change is one of the key issues," McCain said, "There is no doubt how the majority of Americans feel about this issue, particularly young Americans whom we have tried to motivate to take part in the political process."
McCain called the U.N. report "compelling" and said the business and the environmental communities had come together to bury the hatchet and work on a deal acceptable to both camps and effective in actually putting a damper on climate change.
"Time is not on our side," he added. "We must act."
The business lobby is indeed coming out bullish on global warming these days with the 2008 election clearly on the agenda.
"Our nation's energy security will be a deciding factor in the elections of 2008," said John Engle, the former Michigan governor who now heads up the National Association of Manufacturers, an association that consumes enormous quantities of energy while providing enormous numbers of jobs that the United States has refused to sacrifice in order to slash greenhouse gas emissions.
Schwarzenegger was no mere window dressing for McCain's appearance. Last year, he signed legislation that will reduce greenhouse gas in the Golden State 25 percent by 2020. He also backs the carbon-trading scheme that McCain and the business crowd favors as a means of easing the expensive transition to cleaner power plants, refineries and other industrial facilities.
"No matter who runs for president," Schwarzenegger said, "I think this will be a very big issue."
But at the same time, Democrats and Republicans aren't about to let a good issue fizzle just because both parties agree something needs to be done about it.
Democratic lawmakers in California Thursday proposed their own package of emissions controls that chided Schwarzenegger's plan as moving too slowly. And a number of political and industry observers expect similar cracks to develop on Capitol Hill.
"Current thinking is that there may be too many compromises needed to get legislation through to bring about an effective law," said Steven J. Christiansen, an environmental law attorney with Parr Waddoups Brown Gee & Loveless in Salt Lake City.
An article distributed by the nationwide law firm Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman LLP noted that 2007 could be the make-or-break year for climate legislation because "this Congress faces a challenging time crunch as the election nears and monopolizes more and more of its time and energy."
"By 2008, controversial legislation will have little chance of getting through what will by then be a very distracted and divided Congress," the attorneys wrote.
Then there is the continuing clash between energy and the environment. David Parker, president and chief executive officer of the American Gas Association said Thursday land-use restrictions were preventing the expanded use of clean-burning natural gas.
"These restrictions have resulted in higher and more volatile natural gas prices, pushing some consumers to less environmentally attractive competing energy forms," Parker said.
McCain is taking stances that some environmentalists won't like. He backs emissions trading for one thing and boosting nuclear power for another. But it isn't anything that will offend most moderates and could play well in California, an important primary state and a state often seen as portent of things to come on a national scale.
"I believe that what they (California) are doing is important and they are sending a message to Washington that they expect us to act at the federal level," he said as the serious political and regulatory maneuvering began to get under way.