As we approach the midterm elections, it seems like a good idea to take a look at what is perhaps the biggest failure of the first two years of undivided Blue rule in a decade and a half: the total failure to pass any kind of meaningful energy legislation. As was the story with pretty much all of the Blue’s legislative efforts, both failures and successes, the real fight for energy reform was to get to sixty votes in the Senate. Ryan Lizza wrote up all the horrible twists and turns for The New Yorker, and it is a depressing story to view close up.
The broad outlines will be instantly familiar to anyone who’s been following the news these last two years. The House passes a decent bill, the Senate either kills it outright, ignores it, or butchers it until plenty of the most ardent Blue supporters are unsure whether or not it’s even worth doing. This happens because Senate rules that were designed for an era of gentlemanly cordiality are easily exploited in an era when anything short of an actual knife fight is considered routine. And that doesn’t even include the fact that individual Senators can gum up the works in myriad tiny ways.
What Lizza does is take those generalities and let you see specifics in all their ugly glory. The key players are Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman, two men who appear to think that their thin skin is quite thick. Each one presents himself as some kind of cold eyed realist, as though admitting that global warming is real is some kind of bold, forward thinking position. But when push comes to shove, when they’re faced with even a little bit of opposition, each one folds. When the phrase, “Lieberman was flattered” is one of your early, hopeful signs, odds are you’re already doomed.
But Lizza doesn’t let the climate bill off the hook just because a few politicians got their feelings hurt. In desperation, the bill’s backers turned to the real power in the Senate: the men who write the checks. And the men who are rich because of oil and gas didn’t become so by being poor negotiators. The angels of the climate bill had to all but give away the store just to get them to the negotiating table. Ultimately, even that wasn’t enough.
Overall, the whole thing is nothing short of catastrophic. Climate change is an apocalyptic problem, and our system not only failed to get something meaningful done, it didn’t even come close. Making the whole thing even more frustrating is the fact that all that money and influence could only buy a delay. Global warming isn’t going to go away because the people who own Congress choose to ignore it. The fossil fuel supply isn’t going increase because of any laws on the books. Other countries aren’t going to suspend research into better energy sources because of our politics. Congress will pass a big energy bill one of these terms, it’s only a matter of time. When they do, it won’t be able to do as much good as one that could’ve passed this year.
