Climate Change Bill: Driving Next Election?

Posted on July 3, 2009 in Business/Law, Health & Medicine, The Environment

Global warming legislation approved by the House is set to become a signature issue in the next election, with interest groups on both sides promising their support will depend on how lawmakers vote. The bill will now go before the Senate, where it faces another round of opposition.

After months of argument over the measure, it seems likely that the issue will come up during the midterm elections of November 2010. However, Congressional Democrats hope that the bill will be passed this year, making the debate more theoretical. Republicans are likening the bill to a proposed B.T.U. tax backed by Democrats in the early Clinton administration. The tax would have impacted each unit of energy consumed, but it was ignored by Senate and later used as a campaign issue by Republicans.

The newest environmental legislation is meant to lessen the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and create millions of jobs related to cleaner energy. Democrats say that support of the legislation could show how much the political climate has changed since 1993, when the B.T.U. tax was proposed.

President Obama changed his address about health care on June 26 to speak about the narrow House passage of the energy bill. “Don’t believe the misinformation out there that suggests there is somehow a contradiction between investing in clean energy and economic growth,” he said. “It’s not true.”