The Price Of Being Green

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have promised to bring cap-and-trade legislation to the floor sometime this year, but it still seems to be meeting resistance. Why is this issue still controversial?
There are differences and certainly there have been some objections raised but what's amazing to me is that we have a moment where a cap on carbon has tremendous momentum. I think there's a recognition that a cap will unleash the power of the market to not only find but also fund the best solutions to reducing global warming pollution and that the cap will cause a major injection of private investment to create jobs.

But isn't there a lot of opposition from companies who say it will drive up costs?
There are still some opponents. But there are now leading members in the oil industry, the auto industry and in the manufacturing segment who have united on a single plan to move forward. In the history of our country, we've passed a lot of major environmental statutes, but none have had anywhere near the support from the corporate community that we are seeing now.

What kind of damage has been done to the environment over the last eight years under Bush? Is it reversible or fixable?
The great untold story of the last eight years is the real progress made on climate-change policy at the state and local level. But we've lost a lot of ground—both in terms of the long-lived pollution we've left rising and unchecked for too long, and in very real economic terms. Other countries now have the upper hand in developing the technologies that will reduce emissions and power the global low-carbon energy economy. But I'm confident we can win the race if we get in soon.

What has happened since your book appeared in hardcover last year—have you seen any more momentum on environmental issues than before it came out?
I'd like to think that "Earth: The Sequel" is solely responsible for environmental issues rocketing to the top of the agenda in Washington, but I bet it has more to do with an avalanche of information that climate change is happening faster than expected and that our lack of an appropriate response is no longer tenable. A year ago we were gearing up for Senate debate over a climate bill that few expected to pass, and fewer expected to be signed by the president. We made significant progress, but Washington gridlock cut short the debate. Today, we have a president who is actively calling on Congress to send him a bill, and legislators are constructively engaged on a level I haven't seen in decades.

What kind of impact do you think the stimulus will ultimately have on the environment?
President Obama's Recovery Act was a huge down payment on what we need to do for the environment. It will give a major boost to America's clean-energy industries and help us catch up to our European and Asian competitors, who have jumped ahead of us in wind, solar, and other technologies. It's important to point out, though, that the president has said that these federal investments are not enough. We need the capital and creativity of the private sector focused on alternative energy if we want to overhaul our oil-addicted economy. That will only come when a cap on carbon pollution creates demand for clean energy.

© 2009