Climate Change Conference: Legislation is Coming, but be Patient
This past Monday saw the opening of the Brainstorm: Green conference hosted by Fortune. The first of two panels looked at policies and politics, and the second panel will look at costs and opportunities in the US. The overall message coming from the experts at the conference was that new climate change legislation is coming, but don't expect it to be too soon or too tough.
The experts at the conference warned not to expect new legislation to be passed until 2011. The reason apparently is that despite the constant barrage of images of polar bears drowning and factories spewing out pollution, global warming is still not seen as a tangible threat in America. The flip side is the harm that could come from new legislation, namely more taxes and possibly lost jobs, is still top of mind for most. Jerry Brown, the Attorney General of California summed it up: "The threat [of global warming] is more obscure to the average person, and the costs [of legislation] are very real."
Coal, specifically, seems to be causing much of the delay. There are currently 27 House Democrats elected in constituencies that rely on coal for their local economy. Despite what these Democrats think about global warming, they have to represent the interests of the people who elected them. These people tend to vote with their pocketbooks. While some form of legislation will eventually be passed, it will have to be drastically watered down to get through Congress.
Yet this reality has now dampened everyone's hopes. Fred Krupp of the Environmental Defense Fund believes the best way to fight global warming is to offer profit incentives for people who can find ways to remove carbon from factories. He said "If we use the profit motive, and only if we use the profit motive, we will solve this."
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