However, even with a large Democratic majority in the House and Senate, legislation that would sufficiently contribute to mitigation to reduce some of the most catastrophic effects of climate change—according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—have proved very difficult to garner widespread Congressional support.
With such a serious crisis threatening our planet, and widespread scientific consensus calling for a comprehensive international response, it is sometimes baffling to consider that so many decision-makers remain opposed to action. Why did all but one Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee vote against the bill, and why is it so difficult for more conservative Democrats to sign on?
However, the economic models used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Energy Information Administration, and prestigious universities worldwide almost invariably predict that a comprehensive climate change policy will damage the economy, not because it will, but because of how the models are designed. They invariably assume our economy is already operating at its most efficient state, so any deviation is perceived as harmful.
On the other side of the analytical divide are the models of the climate and energy NGO community and a handful of government entities and universities that make an effort to accurately model the benefits of climate policy in terms of jobs, economic growth, and consumer savings, as well as the avoided costs of inaction. These models are no less rigorous in quality of data and technical methodology than those of conventional economists, yet they have comparably little influence on climate change policy debate.
The EPA's ongoing efforts to quantify the economic benefits, as well as the costs, of the Waxman-Markey bill are commendable, but not sufficient. The benefits calculated in their models will be just a narrow subset of all probable benefits, and will provide little extra impetus for essential legislative action. Until the discipline of economics undergoes a fundamental reorientation, policymakers and the public must take economic estimates of the costs of energy and environmental policy with many grains of salt, and should be ready to proceed with or without their approval.
The United States needs to take bold action as soon as possible to begin to address climate change. And such action will indeed require a great deal of federal spending on tax incentives, research and development, and subsidization of certain emerging green technologies, among other programs. But when accurately accounting for the economic and social benefits of such legislation, it becomes abundantly clear that it is in our nation's best interest to act, and act now.
Special thanks to Chris Knight for contributing to this post.
Images: Climate pollution (treehugger.com), Reps. Henry Waxman and Ed Markey (New York Times), Partisanship (globalwarmingisreal.com), Adam Smith (Wikipedia)
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