The Story of Why Congress Couldn"t Pass Cap-and-Trade, a Political Tragedy
Ryan Lizza's New Yorker article, "As the World Burns, how the Senate and White House missed their best chance to deal with climate change," is a gripping narrative about how Washington works. It is also nothing short of a tragedy. The article describes how Lindsey Graham, Joseph Lieberman and John Kerry failed in their attempt to enact cap-and-trade legislation. Their failure resulted from a number of factors: republican ignorance-inspired obstructionism, a botched effort by the White House, bad luck ironically brought about by the BP oil spill, and, of course, FOX News.
The triad, known as K.G.L., worked valiantly for months on the project. Graham, I must say, deserves applause from Americans because he is one of the last of a rapidly dying breed of moderate Republicans. Unlike most members of his party, he understands that climate change poses a serious threat to civilization. And he tried his best to combat the problem. Similarly, Kerry took some heroic measures, such as calling upon T. Boone Pickens, one of the key contributors to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth smear campaign that likely cost him the 2004 election, for help.
But this was all in vain. For one thing, the Republican party by and large rejects climate change science, amazingly claiming that the experts are conspiring to deceive the world and that the whole thing is a hoax. This is a scandal in itself, which I have a lot of trouble coming to terms with, but it fits within the broader paradigm of the right's disdain for science, particularly in the case of evolution. As such, no matter how ironclad the census is among climate scientists, and no matter how palpably the evidence of global warming manifests itself in the physical world (from the hottest summer on record in New York, to the flooding in Pakistan, to the heat waves in Russia, just to stick with this summer alone), the right will not relent. This is also consistent with their orthodoxy in the realm of fiscal policy-even in the face of the near collapse of the economy brought about by a deregulated banking system, they still persist in clinging to the discredited notion that unfettered markets can police themselves. If there were ever proof that the conservative agenda would destroy civilization, nothing can be more decisive than their obstinate ignorance about and resistance to these two crucial issues. Consequently, according to Lizza, when the K.G.L coalition attempted to "negotiate directly with them and offer them something specific for their support... the coalition had one Republican" after a year of this method.
But we can't just blame the Republicans here. It seems clear that Obama torpedoed many opportunities with a strategy that was at times apathetic and at others clumsy. His focus on health care reform left little room for a serious effort on cap-and-trade. Most strikingly, Carol Browner, the director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, was allotted only three aides to assist her. As a former Lieberman adviser put it, it was as if Obama said to Browner, "hey, change the entire economy, and here are three staffers to do it!" The lack of executive focus is further reinforced by a Senate aide's description of how White House staffers were wont to ask those involved "how are you feeling? Where do you think the votes are? What do you think we should do? It's never 'Here's the plan, here's what we're doing."
These characterizations illustrate the notion that, as Lizza explains, unlike with health care reform, Obama chose to pursue climate change legislation in a passive manner, largely leaving it up to congress. And in the few instances in which Obama could and should have used leverage to negotiate, he totally dropped the ball, to the disgust of Lindsey Graham. By unilaterally announcing an increase in domestic oil drilling, nuclear loan guarantees and a request that the E.P.A. delay regulating carbon, the President threw away all his chips, leaving Graham with no bargaining power. According to Lizza, "Obama had served the dessert before the children even promised to eat their spinach."
Executive blunders and Republican resistance were daunting obstacles in themselves. But the burden was further compounded by the BP oil spill. This development is shocking in retrospect, especially because many Americans wonder why Obama didn't seize upon the disaster to rally the public behind cap-and-trade. But in truth, the spill served the opposite purpose by making the President look foolish for previously promoting off shore drilling "at a time when the newspapers were filled with photographs of birds soaking in oil," as Lizza explains. Consequently, "the White House's 'grand bargain' of oil drilling in exchange for a cap on carbon had backfired spectacularly."
But all this would be irrelevant if not for FOX News. Lizza's article implicitly exposes the danger FOX has done to America by describing how Lindsey Graham found himself in a mad dash to get the legislation off the ground "before FOX News got wind of the fact that this was a serious process." Graham feared that the second FOX focuses "on us, it's gonna be all cap-and-tax all the time, and it's gonna become just a disaster for me on the airwaves." This proved all too true. But there was a nasty twist. Someone in the White House leaked an aspect of the legislative plan to FOX, which promptly placed the story on its Web site. The unexpected betrayal by the White House and easily anticipated fear-mongering by FOX was a significant step towards the eventual collapse of the process.
What we can gather from this tragic story is that in order to get anything done in Washington there's no margin for error. Moderate Republicans are far too scarce, and the conservative media is too powerful and dogmatic. It is imperative, therefore, that Obama not squander opportunities with clumsy politics. As an outspoken supporter of the President, I am inclined to excuse his inadequacies and lay the bulk of the blame where it belongs-on the Republicans, since, after all, they mostly deny the existence of global warming. But, as Lizza concludes, climate change should have been item number one on the agenda over health care because, although guaranteeing coverage for most Americans is a huge accomplishment, there won't be any sick people left once we feel the full effects of runaway global warming, a threshold that we may have crossed already.
(For more articles check out my blog: http://scholarlywritingreviewed.com/)
The triad, known as K.G.L., worked valiantly for months on the project. Graham, I must say, deserves applause from Americans because he is one of the last of a rapidly dying breed of moderate Republicans. Unlike most members of his party, he understands that climate change poses a serious threat to civilization. And he tried his best to combat the problem. Similarly, Kerry took some heroic measures, such as calling upon T. Boone Pickens, one of the key contributors to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth smear campaign that likely cost him the 2004 election, for help.
But this was all in vain. For one thing, the Republican party by and large rejects climate change science, amazingly claiming that the experts are conspiring to deceive the world and that the whole thing is a hoax. This is a scandal in itself, which I have a lot of trouble coming to terms with, but it fits within the broader paradigm of the right's disdain for science, particularly in the case of evolution. As such, no matter how ironclad the census is among climate scientists, and no matter how palpably the evidence of global warming manifests itself in the physical world (from the hottest summer on record in New York, to the flooding in Pakistan, to the heat waves in Russia, just to stick with this summer alone), the right will not relent. This is also consistent with their orthodoxy in the realm of fiscal policy-even in the face of the near collapse of the economy brought about by a deregulated banking system, they still persist in clinging to the discredited notion that unfettered markets can police themselves. If there were ever proof that the conservative agenda would destroy civilization, nothing can be more decisive than their obstinate ignorance about and resistance to these two crucial issues. Consequently, according to Lizza, when the K.G.L coalition attempted to "negotiate directly with them and offer them something specific for their support... the coalition had one Republican" after a year of this method.
But we can't just blame the Republicans here. It seems clear that Obama torpedoed many opportunities with a strategy that was at times apathetic and at others clumsy. His focus on health care reform left little room for a serious effort on cap-and-trade. Most strikingly, Carol Browner, the director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, was allotted only three aides to assist her. As a former Lieberman adviser put it, it was as if Obama said to Browner, "hey, change the entire economy, and here are three staffers to do it!" The lack of executive focus is further reinforced by a Senate aide's description of how White House staffers were wont to ask those involved "how are you feeling? Where do you think the votes are? What do you think we should do? It's never 'Here's the plan, here's what we're doing."
These characterizations illustrate the notion that, as Lizza explains, unlike with health care reform, Obama chose to pursue climate change legislation in a passive manner, largely leaving it up to congress. And in the few instances in which Obama could and should have used leverage to negotiate, he totally dropped the ball, to the disgust of Lindsey Graham. By unilaterally announcing an increase in domestic oil drilling, nuclear loan guarantees and a request that the E.P.A. delay regulating carbon, the President threw away all his chips, leaving Graham with no bargaining power. According to Lizza, "Obama had served the dessert before the children even promised to eat their spinach."
Executive blunders and Republican resistance were daunting obstacles in themselves. But the burden was further compounded by the BP oil spill. This development is shocking in retrospect, especially because many Americans wonder why Obama didn't seize upon the disaster to rally the public behind cap-and-trade. But in truth, the spill served the opposite purpose by making the President look foolish for previously promoting off shore drilling "at a time when the newspapers were filled with photographs of birds soaking in oil," as Lizza explains. Consequently, "the White House's 'grand bargain' of oil drilling in exchange for a cap on carbon had backfired spectacularly."
But all this would be irrelevant if not for FOX News. Lizza's article implicitly exposes the danger FOX has done to America by describing how Lindsey Graham found himself in a mad dash to get the legislation off the ground "before FOX News got wind of the fact that this was a serious process." Graham feared that the second FOX focuses "on us, it's gonna be all cap-and-tax all the time, and it's gonna become just a disaster for me on the airwaves." This proved all too true. But there was a nasty twist. Someone in the White House leaked an aspect of the legislative plan to FOX, which promptly placed the story on its Web site. The unexpected betrayal by the White House and easily anticipated fear-mongering by FOX was a significant step towards the eventual collapse of the process.
What we can gather from this tragic story is that in order to get anything done in Washington there's no margin for error. Moderate Republicans are far too scarce, and the conservative media is too powerful and dogmatic. It is imperative, therefore, that Obama not squander opportunities with clumsy politics. As an outspoken supporter of the President, I am inclined to excuse his inadequacies and lay the bulk of the blame where it belongs-on the Republicans, since, after all, they mostly deny the existence of global warming. But, as Lizza concludes, climate change should have been item number one on the agenda over health care because, although guaranteeing coverage for most Americans is a huge accomplishment, there won't be any sick people left once we feel the full effects of runaway global warming, a threshold that we may have crossed already.
(For more articles check out my blog: http://scholarlywritingreviewed.com/)