Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has the votes to get his landmark energy and climate legislation approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Reuters reports today:
Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have enough votes to approve historic legislation to cap and reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to a Reuters survey of specific lawmakers on the panel.
The legislation, which Democratic leaders plan to have the committee vote on this week, would e heart of the legislation is a “cap and trade” system that would gradually reduce the amount of greenhouse gases from utilities, steelmakers, oil refineries and other companies by requiring them to have permits to spew their emissions.
Of the 59 members on the House committee, Reuters found that 30 lawmakers, all of them Democrats, would definitely vote “yes” or were likely to support the bill. The survey results were based on comments from the lawmakers themselves or from congressional staff on where their bosses stand on the bill.
That would be a very big deal since the Energy and Commerce Committee is considered more conservative than the House as a whole on energy and climate issues — stuffed as it is with members representing traditional (i.e. polluting) energy industries. It would mean that Waxman need not make any more compromises to get the bill passed out of committee. It would also be a tremendous political accomplishment given that six days ago, the ranking Republican, Joe Barton (R-TX), said “I don’t think they can get it out of committee.”
And here’s a surprise — it’s possible the bill might even get one Republican vote:
The panel’s top Republican, Representative Joe Barton, has implied that every Republican member of the committee would vote against the bill. But at least one, Mary Bono Mack of California, might support the bill. She is a “potential yes and a potential no,” according to an aide. Reuters did not survey other Republican members of the committee.
Still some Dem fence-sitters, but one hopes that as they see passage is inevitable, they will support their leadership.
Six committee Democrats in the Reuters survey expressed concerns about the bill, showed little support for the measure or were still undecided. They were: John Barrow of Georgia, Eliot Engel of New York, Jim Matheson of Utah, Charlie Melancon of Louisiana, Mike Ross of Arkansas and Zack Space of Ohio.
If this story is accurate, kudos to Waxman and Markey.
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Well this is great news. I’d have to give the bill a C+ but it can be tightened up, and will be, as the effects global warming in the next decade demonstrate the urgency of tightening up on the caps. The free offsets will expire and that should accelerate carbon reductions.
I have not seen the bill as passed by the committee. Joe Romm should post
the whole thing here, all 1000 pages because my computer cannot do the new
pdf and because my computer has trouble handling documents that big. The
933 page bill I saw was way too wimpy to do us any good. I suggest that
this bill should be renamed “The Suicide Pact of 2009.” It would have been
OK in 1970. but too many tipping points have already been crossed that
could cause our extinction even if we emit ZERO CO2 from now on.
Tipping Point 1. Reference: “With Speed And Violence” by Fred Pearce,
2007. Mr. Pearce has seen formerly frozen peat bogs in the tundra in Siberia
that are now lakes outgassing so much methane that they don’t freeze over in
Siberian winter. There is enough methane in tundra peat bogs to raise the
global temperature by 18 to 21 degrees Fahrenheit. Reference: “Six Degrees”
by Mark Lynas. Another 10 degrees Fahrenheit will surely cause our
extinction.
Tipping Point 2. Methane is bubbling out of the Arctic Ocean. This methane
is coming from the methane clathrates that are frozen at the bottom of the
ocean. [A CLATHRATE is an ice thing that traps methane.]
Tipping Point 3. Loss of ice on the Arctic Ocean. The dark ocean water
absorbs sunlight. Ice on the ocean reflects sunlight. A change in the amount
of ice tends to run away.
We are about to cross Tipping Point 4. 450 parts per million [ppm] CO2
equivalent. We are at 387 ppm CO2 but when you add in the CH4
[methane] and the other greenhouse gasses, we Are at 430 ppm equivalent
and rising fast. “The vanishing Face of Gaia” by James Lovelock, 2009,
page 153 says that paleohistory shows a sudden 9 degree rise at 450 ppm
equivalent. The physics is not stated. We are almost there. We HAVE to
get back to 350 ppm.
Arctic ocean ice makes as much difference as 70% of the 386 ppm of CO2.
Source: “The vanishing Face of Gaia” by James Lovelock, 2009. With Zero
CO2, the earth average temperature would be at, if memory serves, [don't
depend on my memory] 18 degrees below zero Centigrade. Actual earth
average temperature is 15 degrees centigrade above zero. That is a 33
degree centigrade difference. Melting all of the Arctic ocean ice adds 70%
of 33C which is 23 degrees centigrade or 41.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Add 20
degrees for the methane coming out of the tundra peat bogs and 20 degrees
for the methane coming out of the Arctic Ocean clathrates. That makes 81
degrees of temperature rise. If the land temperature is above 75 degrees F, it
turns into a desert because of fast evaporation. Source: “The vanishing Face
of Gaia” by James Lovelock, 2009. The sum of the 3 tipping points that we
have already tipped is 8 TIMES what is required to make Homo Sapiens
extinct.
We not only have to shut down ALL coal fired power plants “NOW”. We
also have to cover the peat bog lakes and the Arctic Ocean with some kind of
reflective surface so that they can freeze over again. We have to collect the
methane that is coming from the bog lakes and the ocean and use it as fuel
because methane is such a powerful greenhouse gas. I don’t know how to
cover all of that surface, so here is a silly idea: Cover the ocean with ping
pong balls. I don’t know how to collect methane from such a wide area either.
Let’s hope the whole house adds the following:
1. A statement saying that the president is allowed to speed up the time table
for coal phase out but is not allowed to slow it down.
2. Adds funding for research in dealing with the tipping points listed above.
Do you have any ideas better than covering the ocean with ping pong balls?
3. Adds funding for direct removal of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses
from the atmosphere. This would be trillions of dollars, but the cost of OUR
extinction is infinite.
4 . Adds funding for geoengineering by light deflectors at the first Earth-
Sun LaGrangian point. This would use up the defense budget.