Okay, the Obama Administration is gathering up the laurel wreaths for its landmark victory on health care reform. Nancy Pelosi, my all-time personal favorite Speaker of the House, deserves a lioness’s share of the credit as well. Here’s a happy picture at the bill signing today. Nancy looks pretty darn jazzed!
But this blog is about climate change, isn’t it? Right! I’m thrilled on its own many merits that the health care package has passed – with a number of important “fixes” to follow soon from the US Senate. (The Good Lord willin’ and the crick don’t rise.) But this also means that the decks are now much cleared for action on climate change and energy, another top goal of the administration and the Democratic leadership in Congress. Obama, Pelosi, Harry Reid and other critical players can now bring some of their rejuvenated political capital to bear on saving the planet.
I have lauded the Obama Administration many times here for its attention to the issues of climate and energy absent legislation. Now it’s time to get down to the hard work of building bridges, mending fences and knocking heads that goes into the complex politics of making federal legislation. The House of Representatives has long since done its job. The Waxman-Markey bill is a hugely important historical document. But it isn’t yet the law of the land. We need, for better or worse, the U.S. Senate to act. There have been portents that they’re getting closer. There have also been indications that the Senate is not emotionally ready quite yet to actually work toward energy independence and security, a reduction in greenhouse gases, a clean tech economy with millions of green jobs as a consequence, and a chance to avert climate catastrophe.
One of the supposed linchpins of a “bipartisan” approach to climate and energy legislation in the Senate is Lindsey Graham. His feathers appear to have been ruffled by the Democratic breakthrough on health care and he said that that “… is going to make it difficult to do anything complicated and controversial.” E2 Wire reports here that Graham is saying his colleagues are going to be “risk averse” in the wake of passage of health care reform. (Note that the Senate Republicans are going to have their noses rubbed in it when the Democrats pass the House package of fixes soon via reconciliation.)
Bloomberg reported yesterday that 22 Democratic Senators have written to Harry Reid to urge the taking up of energy and climate-change legislation this year. The letter is a clear call for action, even from some Senators who have concerns regarding how their states may be effected by a price on carbon. Tom Udall from New Mexico spearheaded the effort on this. It is entirely worth noting that Udall’s father, the very great American conservationist and former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, has just died. The passage of comprehensive climate and energy legislation into law would certainly be a testament to Stewart Udall’s memory.
