Sit down, I’m about to praise Waxman-Markey

on Jul 14 in Climate Change, Politics tagged by Trevor Hicks

Just to recap, I’m not a climate change denier.  I think it’s unrealistic to expect humans will limit greenhouse gas emissions, but if we’re going to try I much prefer a straightforward carbon tax that is easy to assess costs against benefits, adjust (and repeal) than cap and trade schemes that lead inevitably to cronyism, gaming the system and entrenched private interests with a financial stake in preserving the system regardless of its impact on the climate.  Waxman-Markey is even worse than I expected in that regard.  We should be focusing our efforts on, in order: 1) Scrubbing the carbon out of the atmosphere, 2) Offseting the warming impact of greenhouse gases and 3) Learning to cope with a warmer planet.  And, OK I’ll throw in 4) See if we can reduce emissions.

But here’s what is actually really good about Waxman-Markey and that’s the fact that it exists and has been passed by the House but not yet signed in to law.  Because Obama is going to the UN Climate Change summit in Copenhagen in December and as long as we remain in this state, he will have the strongest possible bargaining position.  Having the legislation passed one branch of Congress gives him credibility.  Having it not signed in to law gives him flexibility.  This doesn’t gaurantee a good outcome of the summit, but it gives Obama the chance to both advocate for meaningful action on the climate and protect the US economy.