Lieberman-Warner Climate Bill Fails As Oil Prices Surge to New High

The Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade bill, seen by some environmental advocates as too weak to make a real difference in capping global warming gas emissions, and by others as a necessary first step on the road to stronger measures, failed to pass the U.S. Senate today. Although the bill had 54 supporters, proponents could not reach the 60 votes needed to reach cloture, shut down debate and bring the bill to a vote.

The dissent was split mainly along party lines, with Senate Democrats supporting the bill and Republicans in opposition, saying they would not support the bill because it would raise energy prices. This occurred on the same day that oil shot up to a record high $138/barrel, adding to the energy sticker shock of consumers already paying an average of $4/gallon for gas across the nation. Many different factors can account for the escalating cost of fossil fuel energy, including a weakening dollar against other currencies such as the euro, and the possibility of a speculative bubble in the stock trading of oil, but to consumers the price of fossil fuel energy is just increasing, period.

CUB would like to note that the current beneficiaries of buying this ever-more-expensive black gold are primarily the oil companies, oil-producing nations, and market speculators. And when we pay the cost of the gas and oil, and burn it, the value has been burned as well; there is no long-term investment in any lasting project or infrastructure. We would argue that it would make more sense to pay more for our energy (since we are going to be paying more anyway), while building equity in a new, self-sustaining energy system that is domestically based and ours for perpetuity.

How do we do this? We pass a carbon emissions reduction mechanism, such as a strong cap-and-trade bill, that redirects a significant amount of our energy dollars into reducing energy demand (through energy efficiency), and developing a clean energy infrastructure, right here at home. This will require involvement of the transportation sector, as well, with one popular vision being the widespread use of plug-in hybrid vehicles, which can be recharged with off-peak electricity coming from reduced-carbon resources. With a clean energy economy that is producing green power for a population learning to reduce our own demand, we can foresee reducing by billions of dollars per year the amount we are giving to the oil companies, the oil-producing nations, and the oil market speculators. In the long-term, our energy costs level out and perhaps even begin to go down, if a large percentage of our energy portfolio is made up of solar, wind, wave and geothermal energy resources, where the only costs are maintenance and the fuel is free!

But in order to get from here to there, we need a major shift in our energy spending, a vast reprioritizing of our energy dollars, and a huge transition in the way we think about our energy consumption. Every item we purchase, every meal we eat, every mile we drive, has a carbon footprint, or unaccounted carbon emissions cost, that is going to need to be considered in the cost of that product or activity. In fact, we would go so far as to say that any carbon emissions cap that is worth its salt (another resource highly valued through the ages), requires a fundamental shift in the way our society values all goods and services.

We have come a long way. This was a big step to have Congress finally seriously debate a cap-and-trade bill, and we will go further still next year. In 2009, with a new president, new possibilities will open up. Both of our presumptive presidential candidate nominees have sponsored cap-and-trade bills (although their positions still have significant differences in the plan details), as opposed to our sitting president who has promised to veto any such legislation.

We should be honest with ourselves about the changes coming our way. Energy costs are rising, and adding a realistic “carbon cost” to our energy (and other products), with an eye to reducing the emissions that are causing global warming, will cause them to rise even more in the short term. But this is an investment that will pay huge dividends almost immediately. We build equity in a clean, sustainable energy infrastructure, we become economically more self-sufficient as a nation, and, oh yeah, we might just save the planet. Now, that’s a good deal.

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