Chamber Goes Green?

With one letter, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce transformed itself from Snidely Whiplash to Dudley Do-Right when it comes to climate change.

On Tuesday, the Chamber sent a letter to the chairman and the ranking Republican of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, calling on them “to take steps to bridge the political and geographical divide” that killed legislation to reduce carbon emissions in 2003, 2005, and 2008. The political divide continued on that committee Wednesday, as Republicans once again blocked a markup of that panel’s cap-and-trade bill by boycotting the session.

The Chamber’s letter, however, did provide a boost to efforts by Senators John Kerry and Lindsay Graham to negotiate a climate-change bill that could get the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate. It also may help repair the Chamber’s image, which has been battered by the resignations of high-profile members like Apple over its opposition to past proposals to cap carbon emissions.

Ideas outlined by Kerry and Graham “can serve as a solid, workable, commonsense foundation on which to craft a bill,” wrote Bruce Josten, the Chamber’s top lobbyist.

Kerry and Graham are trying to build support for a compromise bill that would reduce carbon emissions but also encourage offshore drilling for oil and natural gas, the construction of nuclear power plants, and expanded use of clean-coal technology.

At a Capitol press conference Wednesday, Kerry said he was pleased that the Chamber had decided “to come to the table and be part of the dialogue” on climate change.

Senator Joe Lieberman, who appeared with Kerry and Graham at the press conference, called the Chamber’s letter a “turning point.” He pointed to this sentence in the letter in particular: “The challenge of drafting comprehensive climate legislation is not ‘whether’ to do something, but ‘how.’”

“To me, that is a very significant development,” Lieberman said.

The Chamber maintains that it hasn’t changed its position but simply “reiterated its call for a fresh approach that strikes the right balance between new and conventional sources of energy to smoothly transition to a low-carbon future—a win for the economy and the environment,” according to a statement issued by the Chamber.

Graham, who has received flak from some Republicans for working with Kerry, said carbon emissions must be reduced in order to slow global warming, but legislation to do that won’t get 60 votes unless it’s also good business policy. If carbon is priced in a reasonable way, millions of new jobs would be created in the green economy, he said.

“If you do it right, people will make money, you’ll have a cleaner planet, and the world will follow,” Graham said.

The legislation also, however, needs to help the United States reduce its reliance on foreign oil, Graham said. Expanding offshore drilling is essential, he said, and so is finding ways to use America’s abundant supplies of coal without emitting so much carbon into atmosphere.

Graham also said the United States will never meet its targets for lower carbon emissions unless it builds more nuclear power plants.

Many environmentalists have demonized the Chamber and gag at the thought of more offshore drilling and more Three Mile Islands. But if they want to reduce carbon emissions—the biggest threat to the planet—they may have to accept some things they don’t want.

In politics, the saying goes, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.