Article

Reality check

No matter what momentum President Obama gained after his strong State of the Union address, his legislative priorities are facing some hard realities: the worst recession in a generation, an average 10 percent unemployment rate, a $12 trillion deficit and the costs of two current wars.

In his first year of office, his top three initiatives included the economic stimulus bill, health care reform and a climate change bill. While the stimulus bill was passed and put into action, his health care and climate change initiatives have faltered.

During his address, the president continued his push for health care reform and universal coverage for all Americans. Unlike other speeches, though, he offered no timetables to pass the measure since Congress has not yet met any previous deadlines on this issue. And, with the election of Scott Brown, R-Mass., to fill Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat, Democrats have lost their 60-vote majority in the Senate.
Regarding climate change, he stated, “This year, I’m eager to help advance the bipartisan effort in the Senate” in his address. That is a far cry from calling for passage in 2010.

In recent appearances before a town hall meeting and the press, the president’s comments on climate change did not mention putting a price on carbon or even use the words cap and trade. Instead, he spoke of a greatly scaled-back vision of energy legislation that calls for several of the policies that were included in the Senate Energy Committee’s passed energy bill last year. This bill, you may recall, included updating building codes and the electric transmission grid, but did not put a price on carbon fuels. The House-passed bill included a cap-and-trade provision, but has been heavily criticized for including a pollution permit system that critics say appears to favor political allies. Even some environmental organizations opposed it.

Inside-Washington types have declared climate change legislation dead, and partisan gridlock seems to still be the order of the day in Congress. However, legislators from both parties are working on these important energy measures and remain hopeful that they can move forward.

Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass.; Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have worked for months toward a bipartisan approach. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, have introduced a bill that caps carbon domestic production and sells pollution permits.

According to The Washington Post, even pro-oil drilling Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Ark., may introduce a bill this year that places a tax on carbon and returns the revenue raised to consumers. However, shortly after the president’s address, Murkowski criticized him for “threatening” Congress into taking action by imposing backdoor climate regulations through the EPA.

The EPA is implementing new emission regulations for mobile and large stationary sources. Now, the president’s just-released FY 2011 budget for EPA puts real money behind the effort. The budget calls for $43 million to fund these additional efforts to address climate change and work toward a clean energy future.

Murkowski says that “at least 41 members of the Senate are already on record as opposing that approach. That’s about as bipartisan as the climate debate has been in this Congress. And by allowing the EPA to move forward, the president is actually limiting Congress’ ability to develop a bipartisan bill – instead of debating cap and trade or a carbon tax, we’ll spend at least some of our time talking about the EPA’s regulations.”

The work of Congress on energy issues will continue this legislative year, but moving energy legislation forward will be difficult as the Democratic leadership turns its focus to the economy and creating jobs as the mid-term elections approach. As the president also said in his address, “Jobs must be our No. 1 focus in 2010 ...”