Chamber Supports Senate Climate Debate—Sort Of

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


The Chamber of Commerce expressed support for a “bipartisan” solution to the problem of climate change in a letter received today by the Senate panel charged with advancing a climate bill. (And yes, the letter is real and not a prank.) Has the beleagured group finally done a 180 degree turn on its climate policy? Well, not exactly. While it may be trying to improve its image on climate issues, it’s not willing to support the actual bill that the Senate is currently debating.

The press release accompanying the letter indicates that the Chamber still opposes any bill containing mandatory emissions cuts. “The Chamber believes the Senate has an opportunity to promote a workable bottom-up plan that starts by addressing the fundamental building blocks—rather than the top-down approach of targets and timetables it has taken thus far,” Bruce Josten, the Chamber’s executive vice president for government affairs, said in the release.

The Chamber is, however, enthused about the partnership between John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). The Chamber “agrees with a great deal of the principles” and believes they offer a “practical and realistic framework for legislation,” the letter says, “one that echoes the core principles that the Chamber embeds in all of its communications on climate policy.” (Except, of course, maybe this one, which seems to indicate that climate change is good for you.)

The Chamber also makes some requests in the letter, asking that the bill, among other things, “minimize the impact on major emitters,” “take advantage of nuclear power,” and “make us the ‘Saudi Arabia of clean coal’.” The Chamber also wants  the bill to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act—an authority that was taken away under the House bill but largely maintained in the Kerry-Boxer bill so far.

The Chamber adds that “proposals by Senators Alexander, Barrasso, Baucus, Bingaman, Cantwell, Dorgan, Lieberman, Murkowski, Vitter and Voinovich (to name a few) all contain elements that can be used in conjunction with the Kerry-Graham proposal.” While some of those senators have indeed offered reasonable ideas about how to shape climate legislation, not all of them have offered constructive suggestions. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), for example, recently called climate change evidence “ridiculous pseudo-science garbage.” Sen. Barrasso is also a climate change skeptic who attempted just last month to cut off funding for a new Center on Climate Change and National Security.

So, what does this mean? I want to interpret it as a good-faith effort on the part of the Chamber. But it sure sounds like a lot of the same stuff we’ve heard from the group before—with the usual caveats indicating that while it could support climate legislation, it doesn’t support any of the legislation that actually exists.

Still, if this letter in any way encourages Republicans to stop their cynical boycott of the markup, that’s no small thing.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate