Support for climate policies waning . . . for now — VOICES for REASON

A number of developments on the climate front suggest that the tide has turned somewhat for promoters of green climate policy:

• Although Congress has been working for months on a climate change bill that would impose a carbon rationing scheme (cap and trade) on the U.S. economy, and although the House version passed by a narrow margin in June—the Senate version is struggling badly.

• The world is gearing up for a major climate conference in Copenhagen (Dec. 7-18)—which has long been anticipated by climate activists as the chance to hammer out a successor to the Kyoto Protocol before it expires in 2012. But it’s looking less and less likely that the conference will produce any sort of strong, binding agreement.

• A recent Pew poll suggests that fewer Americans see global warming as a “very serious” problem, and the more people hear about cap and trade, the less they support it. (Those who describe themselves as having “heard a lot” about cap and trade tend to oppose it by two-to-one.)

Does this mean that those of us who oppose green climate policies are winning? Is the battle over this issue almost over? Far from it.

It shouldn’t be too surprising that—as the Pew poll reported—fewer Americans see “solid evidence the earth is warming” when global temperatures have been declining for the last few years. Shifting temperatures, by themselves, don’t say anything about the causes of those shifts, but that’s a subtlety that often gets lost in the rhetoric. So if temperatures start to rise, will people just jump on the global warming bandwagon once again?

And much of the opposition in the Senate has to do to with how quickly Barbara Boxer is trying to ram through the legislation. One of the Republicans fighting the bill, Sen. George V. Voinovich (Ohio), said “Why are we trying to jam down this legislation now? Wouldn’t it be smarter to take our time and do it right?”  What’s the “right” way to impose a massive new energy tax on every sector of the U.S. economy?

These political delays are just a temporary setback for climate activists. But this debate will continue as long as people continue to embrace the deeper green premises underlying it. These are what really need to be debated to bring the fundamental issues to light.

Photo credit: flickr/kevindooley