Climate Watch: With a decision coming up, will the Senate go big or small on climate change?
While the media spotlight is elsewhere, the U.S. Senate this summer is seriously negotiating climate change legislation.
Senate Democrats have signaled that they are focused on climate change. They plan to address the issue in this year’s budget reconciliation.
This is potentially good news for those who have argued for a price on carbon. That’s because consideration of a carbon price meets the strict parliamentary requirements of budget reconciliation. The reconciliation is not subject to the filibuster, meaning that it can be passed with 51 votes instead of 60.
Climate activists have been waiting years for this opportunity. As a Citizens’ Climate Lobby spokesperson said, “This is our first chance for meaningful climate action that can’t be blocked by the filibuster.”
An economy-wide price on CO2 will lower America’s carbon pollution output quickly. We must price carbon to hit the Biden Administration’s goal of 50% emission reductions in the next decade. It needs to be part of any serious climate solution. While not a “silver bullet,” virtually all economists, including 28 Nobel Laureates and four former chairs of the Federal Reserve, understand that pricing pollution is the best single economic tool we have.
While some sort of climate action seems destined to find a home in the reconciliation bill, it is not certain that a carbon price will be included. During the presidential election campaign, the Biden camp outlined several proposed climate actions but a price on carbon was not among them.
The reasons for this are murky, at least to me. Is the concern that people will perceive a price on carbon as an economic brake? If so, that’s wrong. A number of bills in the Senate and the House offer “carbon cash back” provisions whereby the money collected from a price on pollution goes directly back to Americans to protect them from rising fossil fuel-related costs as we transit to a green economy. And the establishment of the green energy economy itself will be a net job creator, spurring innovation.
The avoided expense of even worse climate change will help the economy too. People are starting to understand that the cost of not doing enough will be massive. Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse says, “On climate, remember, that this is not just the worst year in the last 10 to 20 years, it’s also likely to be the best year in the next 10 to 20 years. The worst is yet to come.”
The negotiations are taking place in the Senate right now. The words are being drafted. By late August it will all be done. As a CCL staffer put it, “In a nutshell, they can go big, or they can stay small.”
If you want them to go big, and really get a handle on the climate crisis, I urge you to write or call Senator Bob Casey. Tell him that you want him to support a price on carbon in this year’s budget reconciliation. And contact Senator Pat Toomey and ask him to support a price on carbon because it’s good for business and addresses climate change.