Is there a middle ground in the climate change debate? Our senior Senator, John Warner, is looking for it.
There's both good news and potential red flags here, but let's start positive. Although he votes with conservatives most of the time, Warner is known for his occasional high-profile break with Republican right-wingers, on issues ranging from Ollie North's Senate candidacy to Bill Clinton's impeachment.
He now appears to be distancing himself from the Republican war on climate science, as led by Sen. James Inhofe, the beneficiary of Oklahoma oil and gas donors who conveniently calls climate change a "hoax." After voting against the climate change bill sponsored by Sens. McCain and Lieberman in 2003 and 2005, Warner is now positioning himself as, per The Hill, "pivotal on Senate climate change legislation."
Warner is working with Lieberman, as well as Sens. Landrieu (D-LA), Graham (R-SC) and Lincoln (D-AR), on a bill to reduce the possibility of a carbon exchange market causing economic disruption. Their bill is based on a paper by Duke University professor (and former Lieberman aide) Timothy Profeta that proposes several mechanisms to keep such a cap-and-trade-based carbon market from getting out-of-hand.
The paper is serious and includes some good ideas, including some reasonable flexibility (allowing companies to borrow against future emissions reductions) and an appropriate regulatory regime (a proposed Carbon Market Efficiency Board). It is also preferable to the bad idea proposed by Sens. Bingaman and Specter to basically shut down proposed carbon markets through a "safety valve" that kicks in at a certain price level.
Now the red flags: sometimes centrist approaches break legislative log-jams and allow for real progress, but sometimes they do so by slipping in loopholes that undermine the whole purpose of the legislation. Even serious problem-solving attempts sometimes get whittled away by a well-targeted lobbyist-written amendment here or there.
So while I think that Sen. Warner's constructive engagement in climate change should be strongly encouraged, it's also important to keep a close eye on this legislation to make sure it doesn't end up defeating the whole purpose of climate change regulation. That means not allowing reasonable flexibility in the market to become a gaping loophole, or permitting the proposed Carbon Market Efficiency Board to become an industry-dominated drag on progress.
So, Sen. Warner, keep up the good work, but please know that we'll be watching you to make sure that it stays on target!
Wrong. He's known for his occasional PRETEND breaks. He then turns around and votes with them. I'm not sure why people still insists on how fair he is. He's not. Saying one thing and doing another is John Warner's game.