 This is one in a series of Adopt A Senator For Climate diaries on DailyKos. RLMiller is coordinating a whip project in which a volunteer targets a particular Senator, ascertains and diaries the Senator's likely vote on the Senate climate bill, and tracks the Senator's position as the bill moves through the Senate. Meteor Blades has previously written Adopt-A-Senator For ACES Targets Climate Legislation, and RLMiller originally announced You can affect climate change: Adopt A Senator For ACES. Please contact RLMiller (email address in her profile) if you're interested in participating.
What bill are we talking about?
President Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress are committed to passing a bill that gets called a lot of different things. And that's beacuse it's a large, comprehensive bill that addresses multiple challenges at once. The biggest challenge is the issue of climate change, I'll hope that those reading this diary are fairly well informed about climate change, it poses a serious threat to our natural ecosystems, many parts of our economy and our national security. We also import a huge amount of oil from other countries, some of who are not the friendliest towards us in general, in order to burn it and contribute to climate change. And as a added bonus it's going to be extremely expensive in the near future.
Both of these problems are both opportunities to transition to a new green economy that creates millions of good paying jobs right here in America. Studies predict passing legislation addressing those problems could create 1.9 million jobs, with the jobs deficit in our country that's a huge deal.
For the sake of simplicity I will refer to the bill as a climate bill as that is the most important challenge it takes on.
To accomplish these things the House of Representatives passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act in June and the Senate just introduced it's own version, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. The Senate version will be marked up by the Environment and Public Works Committee in Mid-October but other committees may decide to also hold mark ups. The hope is still that we can pass a bill out of the Senate by the Copenhagen climate change conference that will be attempting to reach some kind of deal to address climate change in a major, international way.
Does Klobuchar Support the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act?
Judging from the fact that she was there as it was announced and told me at the DFL Founders Day Dinner that she had been working every night to get the bill done I'd say it's nearly 100% certain that Senator Klobuchar will vote for cloture and final passage on the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act or pretty much any serious climate bill. She is in fact a key player in writing the bill. So the question is will she cave to pressure from corporate polluters or continue to stand up for Minnesota and fight for a strong bill. So far it seems to be a mixed bag.
Where does she stand on key issues?
As stated before, she is heavily involved in the writing of the bill, so everything that's in there should be stuff she's behind. But the legislative process will require some compromises and it's important to know where she stands on some issues that will be dealt with later on.
Coal:
Last month she signed onto a letter that was called a "coal wish-list." It supports measures to sink billions of dollars of taxpayer money into the concept of "clean coal." In response the coal lobby has made her a top target of their campaign to weaken, obstruct and defeat climate legislation. This is not new for her, she has been hyping "clean coal" for quite awhile. To me this is the most problematic compromise that Klobuchar is pushing. While Minnesota does get a majority of its energy from coal it doesn't change the fact that clean energy creates more jobs than coal. And that's not even getting into the costs of the pollution that coal belches out. We should ask her to invest in proven clean energy technologies instead of pushing unproven, expensive ideas about a fantasy of "clean coal."
Nuclear:
I have not been able to find much about her position about nuclear power yet but she does have a vague statement on her website in favor of "safe nuclear energy." It seems likely that she would go along with the nuclear compromise outlined by John Kerry and Lindsey Graham in the New York Times
Second, while we invest in renewable energy sources like wind and solar, we must also take advantage of nuclear power, our single largest contributor of emissions-free power. Nuclear power needs to be a core component of electricity generation if we are to meet our emission reduction targets. We need to jettison cumbersome regulations that have stalled the construction of nuclear plants in favor of a streamlined permit system that maintains vigorous safeguards while allowing utilities to secure financing for more plants. We must also do more to encourage serious investment in research and development to find solutions to our nuclear waste problem.
Agriculture and Ethanol:
Klobuchar is for the Peterson compromise on agriculture and ethanol issues and like the rest of the Agriculture committee seems to maybe want even more compromises.
Drilling:
Klobuchar was part of last years "Gang of 20" that introduced a bill that would allow new drilling, among other things. Kerry and Graham mentioned that as part of their NYT op-ed.
In addition, we are committed to seeking compromise on additional onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration - work that was started by a bipartisan group in the Senate last Congress. Any exploration must be conducted in an environmentally sensitive manner and protect the rights and interests of our coastal states.
Renewable Electricity Standard (RES):
Minnesota has lead the way with a 25 by 25 renewable electricity standard that requires utilities to get 25 percent of their power from renewable power like wind, solar and biomass by the year 2025. The House bill and Senate legislation (the Energy committee has jurisdiction over the RES and has passed a bill) both contain weak versions of a national RES. Amy told me at the Minnesota State Fair that she was working with Olympia Snowe to increase the national RES to 25 by 25 like Minnesota has. This would be a huge improvement over the current bill's RES.
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In short she is for the strong framework of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act as well as some major compromises as outlined in Kerry and Graham's op-ed as well as other places. So she's willing to compromise but does understand the serious threat posed by climate change and dependence on fossil fuels as well as the opportunities those challenges present. And she is one of the most important players in the legislation due to her committee seats and involvement in writing the bill and compromises that will likely be included in the bill. And that means that Minnesota needs to put the pressure on her to do what's right and stand up for the strongest possible bill that invests in clean energy jobs for Minnesota and delivers the pollution reductions that are demanded by science.
Action:
So let her know. Calling your Senators makes a huge impact. It let's you have a voice in the future our our planet. Thankfully, one of the best groups working on climate action, 1Sky, has set up a tool that makes calling your Senator easy and explains why you should call.
So if your in Minnesota make sure you give Amy a call. And if your reading this not from Minnesota you can still make a difference, call your Senator with the same tool.
As one of the biggest clean energy champs in Congress, Jay Inslee, said today this is our chance. We either get out a strong climate and clean energy bill this Congress or it will be another decade. If it's another decade we will be past all tipping points and our economy will continue to suffer. So call your Senator, adopt a Senator, get active. The stakes are too high to stand on the sidelines. |
