If McCain Had Been Elected... Would We Have a Climate Bill?

Allow me to posit an extremely radical hypothetical. If John McCain had been elected president in 2008, would the United States have its first federal law aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions? I might be crazy, and it pains me to say this, but I think the answer might actually be yes.

Watching John McCain over the last year and a half has been terribly disappointing. As soon as J. D. Hayworth threatened to challenge him in the Arizona Senate primary, McCain abandoned the "Straight Talk Express", abandoned many of his prior views and principles, and started positioning himself as an arch-conservative who supports a border fence, wants to extend Bush's tax cuts for the extremely wealthy, and scorns the notion of capping our climate pollution. Despite some of the most overt flip-floppage we've seen this year, McCain's strategy appears to have paid off with the GOP, as he trounced Hayworth in Tuesday night's primary.

Climate Update: Murkowski Amendment Fails; Graham Officially Screws Climate Legislation

To update our loyal readers on the fate of our planet's climate, there's some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Senator Murkowski's attempt to strip the EPA of its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act's Endangerment Finding has failed by a vote of 53 to 47. All 41 Republicans voted for the amendment and were joined by six Democrats: Lincoln (AR), Nelson (NE), Bayh (IN), Landrieu (LA), Rockefeller (WV), and Pryor (AR).

Attempts to debilitate the EPA aren't over, however. Several moderate Democrats have expressed interest in a bill introduced by Senator Rockefeller to postpone EPA action by two years, and Republicans and conservative Democrats in the House have their own plans for trying to put off climate change mitigation efforts.

Climate Bill Goes Nowhere; Murkowski Still Trying to Derail the Clean Air Act

Last week, Senators Kerry and Lieberman released a draft version of the American Power Act (APA), what was once commonly referred to as "Kerry-Graham-Lieberman" but lost the "Graham" over immigration issues that don't actually exist and an oil spill that should be prompting co-sponsorship on clean energy legislation, not impeding it.

A Bill Without a Cap on Carbon is Almost Worthless

Yet another week has passed with Senator Graham, the supposed Republican hero on climate legislation, equivocating about his support for the bill that he co-wrote. His reasons for the need for a "pause" on introducing the legislation? First, the immigration legislation issue (which, by the way, Reid has backed off from and Obama has announced will take a second priority to energy and climate). Second, the Deepwater oil spill. This boggles my mind. Shouldn't this catastrophe propel our elected officials toward supporting a clean energy bill, not away from it? Is Graham so unconditionally beholden to oil interests that this disaster really makes him need to back away from support for legislation that he has been working on for the past seven months?

Senators Kerry and Lieberman have announced that they will go through with the unveiling of their once-"tri-partisan" bill tomorrow, now without Graham. This is certainly going to be an uphill climb. Graham was the bill's biggest chance of passing, and he has wavered and waffled his way to opposing it. There are still a few GOPers who have supported climate legislation in the past (and some who have co-sponsored their own legislation this year), but without the momentum that Graham had given the American Power Act, Republicans will certainly not be flocking to support the bill.

Oil Spills and Energy Bills

It's already been more than two weeks since a yet-unexplained explosion at BP's Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig started sending between 5,000 and 25,000 barrels of oil each day into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill is expected to completely trump the Exxon Valdez disaster, taking the title of worst oil catastrophe in history.

Each day more oil is washing up on the shores of gulf states, as over 2,500 square miles in the gulf are completely blanketed with petroleum. The fishing industry and tourism industry are suffering tremendously and will continue to suffer through the foreseeable future, to say nothing of the havoc that the spill is wreaking on the already fragile ecosystems in the gulf.

Climate Bill on Hold Yet Again

As Kane has pointed out, Arizona's new immigration bill has created a huge stir throughout the country, and with good reason. The Latino community is rightfully outraged, and their frustration will no doubt manifest in the November elections, either in a surge in votes for Democrats, or a deliberate abstention from voting as a punishment for the Democrats they've elected who have not come through on federal immigration reform. Harry Reid, whose home state of Nevada is almost a quarter Hispanic, has acknowledged this reality, and has made it a priority to pass immigration reform before November, when many polls project he is likely to be ousted from his Senate seat.

On a slightly unrelated note (but a now extremely related note), the climate bill created by Senators Kerry, Graham, and Lieberman that was supposed to be unveiled on Monday has been delayed once again, after six months of delay. Why? Because Lindsey Graham, the only GOP Senator who seems willing to work with Democrats on either climate legislation or immigration reform, has asserted that he is unwilling to do both, and will kill climate legislation if Democrats attempt to tackle immigration first.