Climate To The Left of Me? Climate To The Right.

Hillary Clinton

Climate change is not caused by capitalism. Climate change is not caused by political corruption. Climate change is not caused by plutocracy.  

Climate change is caused by rising greenhouse gas emissions.

Anyone and everyone that remotely claims to understand or "believe in" climate change, needs to accept that we must cut emissions.

And, anyone that claims to understand climate change must also accept that we are out of time.  We must get to zero emissions by 2050 just to have a moderate chance of staying under 2C, by even the most optimistic projections.  That means building the infrastructure we need to get to zero today.  In our current system.  

We don't have time to remake our political system first. We don't have time to end political corruption first. We don't have time to solve class, LGBT, gender or racial injustice first.

No.  We don't have time.

If we care about the poor, if we care about women, children, the LGBT community, or minorities, if we care about our government, if we care about our children, if we care about animals and plants, if we care about anything that we have in our lives, we must place the utmost emphasis on cutting emissions.  Every single thing we know or love is jeopardized by climate change. 

We are out of time. And we MUST end carbon emissions. NOW.

As climate solutions go, I prefer the revenue neutral carbon fee and dividend. But a cap and trade can work. A carbon tax swap can work. A revenue raising carbon tax can work. Subsidies for renewables and ancillary infrastructure can work. Nuclear can work. Local, state and federal regulations can work. Private corporate investment can work. Public-private partnerships can work.  Religious edicts can work.  

I will take any and all of the above.

And anyone that claims to understand climate change will too. 

Michael Brune

Michael Brune and the Sierra Club, along with other environmental groups that opposed a carbon tax in Washington, have just demonstrated that they don't understand that.  (Brune cited that the carbon tax wasn't strong enough for various constituents in Washington with whom the left is allied, despite the fact that it includes a payment up to $1500/year for the poor).

People unwilling to vote for Hillary Clinton, who has strong plans for renewables and efficiency, the grid, storage, and load-shifting necessary to renewables, as well as for incentives for states to cut emissions, have demonstrated that they don't understand that.

Yes, we need plans to keep it in the ground.  A price on carbon is accepted as one of the best ways to do that.  And, yes, Hillary Clinton has been generally mum on a price on carbon because she does not see it as politically viable. 

(This is the statement from her campaign back in July:  "'Sec. Clinton would welcome working with Congress to address this issue but she also believes it is too important to wait for climate deniers to listen to science,' Trevor Houser, a Clinton campaign energy policy adviser said... 'That's why she is focused on a plan she can implement from Day 1.'")

Apparently, like most of us, she assumed it wasn't politically viable because of science denial in the GOP. 

One could guess that the left also might block a carbon price if it failed to raise revenue and spend money on renewables.  But no one would have guessed that it wouldn't just be the left, it would be the environmental left blocking a carbon tax. That is shocking. 

Think about that for a moment.  

The leaders in our country on climate...the people who are supposed to know most clearly that we are in dire straits...the people who should know that we must put cutting carbon above all else in order to protect all that we love...they don't get it.  

If the left doesn't get it?  That leaves the center and the right.  And you know what?  I predict that the center and the right will take ownership of cutting carbon before the left ever figures out how to stop squabbling. And the left will be stunned when they've lost on this issue. 

Carlos Curbelo

Bob Inglis

People like Bob Inglis  (former Representative and founder of the Republican carbon tax advocacy group RepublicEn) and Carlos Curbelo (Republican representative and co-founder of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus) are waiting in the wings for that day.  

And you know who else may be predicting the same thing?  Hillary Clinton, who thinks that same none-of-the-above-energy crowd should "get a life." 

(Her leaked comments:  “They come to my rallies and they yell at me and, you know, all the rest of it. They say, ‘Will you promise never to take any fossil fuels out of the earth ever again?’ No. I won’t promise that. Get a life.

Clinton continued: “I’m having conversations in these town halls and these meetings I’m having with a lot of people who break into my meetings, they hold up posters, they scream at me, and all the rest of that: ‘Stop extracting fossil fuels, stop extracting on public lands, come out against nuclear, coal’ you name it.") 

No coal, no oil, no gas, no nuclear...that is not reasonable if you want to lead 320M people who have homes to heat unless you build renewables and infrastructure to support renewables first.  People wonder why she doesn't support a carbon tax. Well, hell, the environmentalists on the left can't even seem to get it together to do that. 

So what is she doing?  She is looking to address climate while speaking the right's language--becoming the clean energy superpower of the world. And not only that, she is doing it with the support and advice of people with a whole lot of experience dealing with climate and energy (Al Gore, John Podesta, Jennifer Granholm, just to name a few).

"Climate change is an urgent threat and a defining challenge of our time. It threatens our economy, our national security, and our children’s health and futures. We can tackle it by making America the world’s clean energy superpower and creating millions of good-paying jobs, taking bold steps to slash carbon pollution at home and around the world, and ensuring no Americans are left out or left behind as we rapidly build a clean energy economy."  https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/climate/

Well, someone's got to speak about climate in language the right understands.  The left sure isn't. 

And it looks like that someone is Hillary Clinton.

And you know what?  I am with her.

Unjust Corporate Profits and Cutting Carbon

Florida, which has the third highest potential for solar energy production, ranks 14th for actual production.  Since 2008, there has been a property tax exemption for homeowners who install photovoltaic solar at their residences, but no similar credit for corporations.

Yesterday, Florida voted for a constitutional amendment giving corporations a property tax exemption for solar installations to be in effect for 20 years, starting in 2018.

The fantastic news is this passed with 73% of the vote.  That demonstrates phenomenal support in a state that has a strong Republican presence.  This is the state whose governor banned state environmental employees from saying "climate change."

This 73% included a wide range of interests, across the political spectrum, right and left:

"Backers of Amendment 4 were all along the political spectrum, including the pro-environment Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Nature Conservancy, and Florida Conservation Voters, and the business-backed Florida Chamber of Commerce, Florida Retail Federation and Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association."

Those tax breaks are going to likely result in huge amounts of corporate dollars turned to solar infrastructure.  Of course, it will also benefit corporate bottom lines.

And herein lies the interesting wrinkle to this story.  The only opposition reported came from the LEFT:

"The opposition was led by the Rev. Al Sharpton, the TV and radio talk show host and president of the National Action Network, and Bishop Victor Curry of Miami, NAN’s southeast regional director, who said they opposed 'unnecessary and unjust tax breaks for corporations.'”

This is reminiscent of an ongoing challenge in Washington State.  Washington has a ballot proposition to implement a revenue neutral carbon tax.  The biggest opposition is from the Democratic Party and labor unions, who worry that it doesn't raise revenue to be retained to fund government policies. Sierra Club cites the fact that it doesn't raise revenue for clean energy as part of its basis for opposition. (There are questions about whether it actually has an error that makes it revenue losing and that is a legitimate concern, but the opposition to revenue neutrality itself is telling).

These two state initiatives to address climate change are both finding their opposition on the political LEFT.  In each case, it seems to be driven by concern that corporations or private interests will get an unfair break of some kind.

We often assume that it is big business, corporate interests, conservatives and Republicans that are getting in the way of cutting carbon.  But what if it is also the climate concerned left?

In the case of Florida, business got a tax break.  And they will likely invest some of their considerable resources into building renewables infrastructure.

Al Sharpton wasn't happy about it.  Labor unions and Sierra Club aren't happy that Washingtonians may collect money on carbon and give it all back to private citizens without raising revenue.

But here is the question.  How important is it to us to cut carbon emissions?

We have five years left at current emissions before we have lost even a 66% chance of staying under 1.5C warming.  Does Al Sharpton appreciate what will happen to the disempowered, the poor, minorities, women and children when we hit 1.5C?  2C?  3C?  Surely, Sierra Club must, no?  Do we really have time to turn our noses up at policies that will cut emissions just because they help corporate interests?

As these types of questions become more and more frequent, it appears that the political right won't be the only group that has some climate soul searching to do.