Green Elephant Line Media Backgrounder

Just Saying 'No' Isn't Enough

April 29, 2009

Congressman Fred Upton, ranking Republican on the House energy subcommittee that is marking up climate legislation the week of May 4, said, "Cap and trade will be the deal breaker."

In other words, in Upton's view, legislation that includes what he called a "cap-and-trade tax" would draw no Republican votes when the subcommittee moves the bill up the ladder to the full Energy and Commerce Committee, then to the House floor. That might be wishful thinking on his part, since there is likely to be a measure of GOP support on the full committee and on the House floor.

That's not to say that Republicans should give Henry Waxman's cap-and-trade bill carte blanche. There is plenty of room for reasonable argument about key economic issues, such as helping energy-using industries and coal-dependent states adjust to emissions caps.

If cap-and-trade is not acceptable, then what about a carbon tax? If not a carbon tax, then what would House Republican leaders accept as the central element of legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stabilize the climate? Just saying "no" to ideas that they don't like isn't good enough.

A climate bill won't succeed unless it includes a mechanism to put a price on carbon dioxide emissions, which would send a signal to energy markets that CO2 emissions impose costs and free disposal in the atmosphere is no longer appropriate.

Funding carbon sequestration demonstration projects, giving a stronger push to nuclear energy development, and providing incentives to accelerate development of other low-carbon energy technologies will be important elements of a climate bill. But the price mechanism is indispensable.

House Republican leaders must do more than oppose. They must force the Democrats to live up to their promises of bipartisanship by proposing constructive alternatives.

One GOP congressman has pointed the way. South Carolina's Bob Inglis has proposed a bill to levy a carbon tax and use the proceeds to offset payroll taxes, dollar for dollar. Inglis has taken a political risk introducing his Raise Wages, Cut Carbon Act of 2009, but he has put a reasonable idea on the table, which tells citizens that there are constructive Republican approaches to solving environmental problems that affect all Americans.

It's time for Upton and other House GOP leaders to follow Inglis' example and offer some climate legislation ideas of their own. Americans deserve more than "no" for an answer.