Don't Tread On Me
A battle is quietly playing out in the courts that has the potential to shape energy policy in this country far more than any legislation. U.S. automakers are suing in federal court to prevent states like California and Vermont from imposing caps on greenhouse gas emissions that are more stringent than federal government standards. The Clean Air Act allows for California to enact its own, more demanding standards, with the approval of the U.S. EPA. Once approved, other states can follow California's lead. The automakers, buoyed by the recent Supreme Court decision confirming that the EPA has the authority regulate auto emissions, insist that the states have usurped the federal government’s rightful role as regulator of greenhouse gas emissions. While we should applaud the auto industry’s concern for the integrity of the U.S. Constitution, the underlying issue is the automakers' displeasure with the propensity of California to hold them accountable for the impact their cars have on the environment. Watching from the sidelines are the utilities and other large polluters, who are seeking a legal precedent to free them from their own distasteful state regulations. Relying on national standards to regulate emissions would not be such a bad outcome if we could count on the Congress to impose meaningful restrictions. But the auto industry and its industrial brethren know quite well that opting for federal oversight is the same boon to lawlessness as choosing Barney Fife over Andy Griffith as your sheriff.
Despite the ambitious goals of the new Democratic leadership in Congress, the uninspired energy legislation winding its way through the House and Senate is the usual triumph of parochial interests and meat grinder consensus. Yesterday, the Senate agreed on compromise legislation to increase fuel economy standards to 35 mpg by 2020, which sounds great, except that Toyota’s fleet has already achieved that standard. Despite the incremental improvements allowed by the 13 year horizon, any chance of achieving meaningful increases in fuel economy standards was abandoned to appease Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the lapdog of the bankrupt auto industry. Levin and his colleagues are the only folks in the U.S. who don’t realize that the knowledge-driven American economy will shed those manufacturing jobs whether Congress protects them or not, and that innovation and productivity gains in this country emanate from the service, retail and technology sectors. The Senate also failed to overcome Republican opposition to increased taxes on the oil companies to fund subsidies and tax breaks for developments in renewable fuels, as well as a federal standard that utilities buy up 15% of their power from renewable sources by 2020. Worse still, Congress is still infatuated with ethanol and fails to grasp even the most basic damning facts about coal-to-liquid technology. The House has yet to vote on its own package, but faces similar factionalism. The blundering in Congress has reached the point where many environmental advocates now believe that no legislation may be better than the watered down versions currently trumpeted by Congressional leaders.
This outcome, of course, is not surprising. Believing that Congress could push on the edge of the envelope in energy policy is a supreme form of naiveté. We can live with incompetence in Washington as long as we can continue to count on the states to produce the type of groundbreaking policy that makes members of Congress tremble with fear. On the issue of climate change alone, states and cities have been the policy trendsetters, providing hope that eventually the U.S. will effectively grapple with its fossil fuel dependence. In addition to Michael Bloomberg’s widely praised sustainability initiatives in New York City and the now numerous states that have established their own caps on greenhouse gas emissions, two regional coalitions – one comprising six Western states and the other ten Northeastern states - have formed to establish cap and trade systems that will encompass one-third of the country and an even larger percentage of the population. These alliances are the first recognition in this country that polluters and their emissions disregard state borders. If successful, they’ll provide the useful cover members of Congress need to vote for a policy that can’t be explained in 30 seconds.
As in all battles with the auto industry, automakers have mastered the art of portraying themselves as victims and defenders of the American way at the same time. Thankfully, the states, unlike the federal government, see through the charade and focus instead on the costs of continued growth in greenhouse gas emissions. Let’s hope the courts see it the same way.