Climate Change Convergence

An interesting convergence of climate change issues on Thursday. May 21st started in Washington, D.C., with the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee entering its fourth day of markup on HR 2454, the American Clean Energy & Security Act, while in the other Washington (Seattle) the Environmental Protection Agency held the second of its two public hearings on the proposed CO2 endangerment ruling.

I had hoped to tweet from the EPA hearing (@USClimateLaw), unfortunately my Blackberry apparently didn't have T-Mobile coverage...at Pier 66 in downtown Seattle! Don't know whether it was operator-error (highly possible) or a lame network, but I did attend Gov. Gregoire's post-testimony press conference where she signed Executive Order 09-05, "Washington's Leadership on Climate Change" and then issued a Lane Powell Hot Sheet on the Executive Order, http://www.lanepowell.com/5267/washington-climate-change-executive-order-signed.

Given that the recession-driven budget constraints that doomed the Washington state cap-and-trade bill are continuing, its hard to see how much real impact the executive order can have, but it is an effort to move policy forward. The Governor characterized the Executive Order as the "next best thing" to the cap-and-trade bill that failed in the last legislative session and it does set up the state to implement whatever cap-and-trade ultimately gets adopted, whether by the feds or the Washington legislature in a later session.

Meanwhile back at the EPA public hearing in Seattle, 185 witnesses signed up to testify for three minutes each. While there was a ritualized feel to the process (which I have to confess may be due more to my perceptions from covering countless public hearings in my previous life as a t.v. reporter), the hearing was well-organized and people expressed their positions in well-articulated concise statements. Not surprising for an environmental hearing in Seattle, the vast majority of speakers favored action by EPA even as Congress considers legislation that could preempt the agency's action. Indeed, the consensus seemed to be that since nothing is guaranteed in the legislative process its important for the EPA to continue with the rulemaking, if for no other reason than to keep pressure on Congress.

Watching Day Four of the C-SPAN stream of the House Energy and Commerce markup of HR 2454 brought to mind Otto Von Bismark's adage: "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." Republican committee members had filed some 400 amendments, but only about 56 of them were considered and most rejected. Notwithstanding the 36 hours of debate on a 900+ page bill and the palpable desire of committee members to get out of town for the Memorial Day recess, as the waning moments of the markup went past 8 pm EDT, there seemed to be less partisanship and vituperation than might be expected and more of a sense of resignation by the minority. The bill passed by a 33-25 margin, mostly on a party line vote. The New York Times describes the future for the bill as "a tortuous path" through several more House committees before it can come to a floor vote and then an even more doubtful fate in the Senate. http://tinyurl.com/r9f7ty.

As the day wore down there was a sense that the history and convergence between the two Washingtons was not to be missed.