This is how a climate bill dies. On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the bad news: “We don’t have the votes.” Without a single Republican backing the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, the Senate’s version of a comprehensive energy bill, there was no point taking it to the floor, he explained. For now, there was no way to move forward.
Reid’s announcement dealt a devastating blow to those hoping the United States would lead the way in aggressively curbing the greenhouse gases that scientists say are dangerously warming the planet. With time running out before 2012, when the current global climate treaty expires, negotiating a new agreement just got much harder.
So who’s to blame? Was it just a poorly crafted bill? Was there ever a chance Republicans would sign on to cap and trade? Did Barack Obama’s administration drop the ball? Or was it environmental groups themselves, who failed to persuade the public that now was the time to act?
FP asked five experts who have closely followed the debate for their verdict. Here’s what they told us:
Find responses by Bill McKibben, Christine Todd Whitman, Bruce Babbitt, Stuart Eizenstat, Paul J. Saunders, and Michael A. Levi at the article url: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/07/23/who_killed_the_climate_bill
