Democrats are salivating at the prospect of a 60-vote majority in the Senate, enough to override a veto and other procedural hurdles. They will almost certainly gain a commanding majority in the House. But environmentalists should realize the answer to their problems isn’t that simple. Sixty Democratic votes would not be enough to break through the Senate’s decade-long impasse on climate legislation.
The debate over the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act in May and June this year showed that a senator’s party affiliation is less important than the nature of their state’s economy. Ten Democratic senators from the Midwest and South wrote a public letter to Environment Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on June 6 expressing concern that the bill would cause “undue hardship on our states, key industrial sectors and consumers.” In particular, they worried about “uncertainty in predicting the costs” and the need to “help … regulated industries … reduce emissions as they transition from an old energy economy to a new energy economy.” T... Read more
