Climate change will be the death panels of 2010

I'm going to go ahead and make a prediction that "climate change" will become the equivalent of the "death panel" rhetoric used last summer by propagandists trying desperately to tear down the Democrats' unabashedly moderate health reform bill. Despite all the excellent arguments for action on climate change and energy policy, I predict that a chorus of (mostly) Republican obstructionists will decry a bill that attempts to solve our energy/climate problems as one that will instead tax all Americans to punish them for emitting nonhazardous gases. This will be a slightly more compelling case to make than were the death panels, as the whole point of putting a price on carbon is to make it more expensive to emit CO₂. However, the energy provisions in the Senate bill are likely to be much stronger on their own spectrum than the climate provisions, and the benefits of investing in clean technology much greater than the costs of the efforts.

Roll Call has a letter from Sen. John Kerry, expressing the need of the Senate to pass a comprehensive energy/climate package in order to create jobs, regain the United States' economic competitiveness, and lift the country more quickly out of this severe recession. "Further delay," he writes, "would only exacerbate the risk of falling behind in the emerging global competition for clean energy jobs, manufacturing and markets."

The letter calls for the creation of clean energy jobs, to the tune of 1.9 million new jobs over the next decade. Kerry laments the nearly $500 billion sent abroad every year for imported energy sources. He places great faith in the free market and lavishes praise on the immense potential of the American entrepreneur. And he points out the rapidly accelerating demand for clean energy technology and the extraordinary growth of the industry.

I repeat all of this not because it is new information, but to point out that in Senator Kerry's letter, the threat of climate change is barely alluded to. I believe this is a preview to the coming debate on the floor of the Senate - a downplay in climate rhetoric, and an emphasis on the massive benefits to the American workforce and security that would result from action on climate/energy. This is the right strategy. But I do not believe that will make any difference. I predict that Republicans in Congress will do everything in their power to highlight the watered-down climate provisions in an effort to kill this bill like they failed to kill the last one. I believe this despite the potential inclusion in the bill of funding for nuclear power, offshore drilling, and a trust fund for cleantech financed by drilling royalties - all Republican ideas, and good ones at that. Much like the health reform bill, this will be a thoroughly moderate and inclusive reform package that takes good ideas from both parties to build a foundation for America's future. I'm guessing that such action will simply be too beneficial for congressional Republicans to support.