Undaunted by the death of climate legislation in the Senate this summer, U.S. Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) vowed to reintroduce comprehensive legislation next year and guaranteed its passage within a few years. “We have a responsibility to the rest of the world,” Markey told a Climate One audience in San Francisco on August 13, “most of the CO2 which is up there is red white and blue.”
Markey, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, conceded that events in the spring, including the health care reform push and Deepwater Horizon disaster, conspired to distract attention nationally from the importance of climate legislation. But its demise was assured, he said, when Republican Senate leaders used the threat of filibuster “as a way of engaging in obdurate, obstinate opposition to this legislation passing – and time was their friend.”
Nevertheless, Markey is convinced that he and other advocates for climate action will be vindicated. “Passage of the Waxman-Markey bill is proof of the inevitable, inexorable pathway that our country is going to take. It’s not a question of if but when this legislation passes. I’m not giving any guarantee that all of this is going to pass this year. But I am giving a guarantee that it is going to pass in the next several years.”
But until, or if, Congress fails to act, the EPA is obligated to press ahead with regulation to limit greenhouse gas emissions. After eight years of delay under George W. Bush (Markey joked that serving as EPA Administrator under Bush “was the most successful witness protection program in the history of our country”), the EPA is now fulfilling its obligation to act. “EPA is under a mandate to act,” Markey said. “There’s a kind of delusional mentality that many opponents of dealing with greenhouse gases are operating with. There is going to be action. Ultimately, that will drive them into the arms of those of us who want to do so comprehensively, but in a way which treats fairly all industries in America so they can make transitions for their companies and for their workers from the high-carbon to the low-carbon era.”
“There are many other industries that would prefer to live in a predictable economic regulatory environment where they know where the rules are. They’re already abiding by similar rules in a European marketplace,” Markey added.
Markey also had a special message for Californians: defeat Proposition 23 (PDF). “You cannot lose this issue out here. It’s an imperative for you to beat back these two Texas oil companies. They are only interested in the short-term profitability of their shareholders. They are not interested in the creation of renewable energy jobs here in California, saving the planet, or backing out of imported oil. If you win here, I think we can win everywhere. If they lose here – the oil companies – they can lose everywhere.”
By Justin Gerdes
Climate One, The Commonwealth Club (August 13, 2010)
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