States cede the front lines in push for climate policy

A Tea Party rally in Washington D.C. in 2009 drew thousands and helped reshape the political landscape after the 2010 elections. As a result, policy experts say, states have flipped from being the drivers of climate policy in the United States to being the brakes. Photos courtesy messay.com/flickr.

March 3, 2011

A year ago states and cities were driving domestic climate policy. Now they're putting on the brakes.

By Douglas Fischer

Daily Climate editor

A year ago, cities and states had a two-word message for the federal government on climate policy: Do more.

One thousand mayors signed a pledge to reduce carbon emissions. States on both coasts were establishing cap-and-trade programs. Uncle Sam was behind the curve.

The feds showed signs of catching up: After a climate bill died in Congress, the Obama Administration carried through on its threat to use regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

And then - poof! - the states took their collective feet off the gas and placed them on the brakes. Some 24 state attorneys general have sued or threatened to sue to prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from regulating carbon emissions. A Montana lawmaker introduced a resolution calling global warming beneficial. A few states are seeking to nullify federal environmental rules.

"It really says something when you have to sue your government to keep them from doing things that are so detrimental," said state Rep. Jim Gooch, a Kentucky Republican who floated a resolution that questions the science of climate change and would prevent any state or city agency from addressing climate change.

"The federal government has gotten so large it can't function. It doesn't get anything done in any kind of a sensible way. They do things like this, and there's a revolt."

Empty cupboards

Across the country, the fight against the EPA rules has been swept up in a larger fight against the federal government, on everything from gun rights to health care. 

"There are empty cupboards and rampant unemployment in my district," said state Rep. Derek Skees, a first-time Republican from Whitefish, Mont. "This is a perfect storm: The federal government has to be fixed. I don't think it's just the EPA and the climate battle."

The climate battle, he added, adds to the perception Uncle Sam isn't listening to the public anymore. "People are pissed, and they're turning to us, the state Legislature, and they're saying what can you do?"

"And what I'm saying is, if the federal government doesn't answer to us, then we smack the federal government down."

Some states and cities, of course, are still pushing climate policy forward. Chicago and Jerusalem next week intend to announce an environmental partnership aimed at fighting climate change. Philadelphia's Mayor Michael Nutter remains committed to making his city the greenest in the nation. California is pushing ahead with carbon limits after voters overwhelming endorsed the state's ground-breaking climate law in November.

Then there's Montana.

One lawmaker proposed a measure stating global warming is a beneficial natural occurrence. It hasn't gone anywhere, but Republican leaders have supported another plan to forbid federal greenhouse gas regulations from being enforced in the state.

2010 election

In Kentucky, the Senate considered a measure that would declare the state a "sanctuary" for the coal industry, free from the "overreaching regulatory power" of the EPA. Virginia's Legislature passed a bill clarifying that the state has the ultimate authority to grant pollution discharge permits for surface mines.

The 2010 election played a significant role in this retrenchment, observers note. A huge Republican freshman class swept to power not just in Congress but in state legislatures. Democrats, who controlled 60 percent of the 88 state legislative chambers up for election last November, lost their majority in 20 chambers, including Montana's. Today Republicans drive the agenda in 60 percent of those 88 chambers, according to Ballotpedia, a website that tracks local races. 

The pushback goes beyond the election, however: The economy continues to struggle, amplifying fear of price spikes and job losses argued by opponents of emissions limits. The health care debate fanned anti-government flames. 

"There are several dimensions here," said Jim Lopach, a professor of American government and public law at the University of Montana. "When you start adding those things together, it's going to strike enough nerves and you're going to have a coalition doing something."

'Deal the death blow'

That coalition is also armed with dollars. The successful effort to kill the climate bill in Congress, for instance, emboldened cap-and-trade critics who have moved down the food chain to dismantle regional efforts. 

Last week a committee in New Hampshire's Republican-led House voted to leave the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the nation's first cap-and-trade market for carbon emissions, touted as a model for any national effort. Lawmakers, reported the Nashua Telegraph, cited skepticism about global warming as well as cost to utility ratepayers.

Part of that campaign was led by Americans for Prosperity, a group started by oil billionaire David Koch that has received millions from fossil fuel interests, according to the Center for Media and Democracy. 

The vote, said AFP vice president for policy, Phil Kerpen, in an opinion piece published by the DailyCaller, "means that New Hampshire is now on a path to doing something that looked impossible just a couple of years ago." 

It could, he said, "deal the death blow" to cap-and-trade efforts both regionally and nationally.

It's not just that the red states have taken the lead; State and regional governments that led the push for climate policy paused when President Obama was elected, wanting to see what the federal government would do, said Louise Bedsworth, a research fellow for the Public Policy Institute of California. 

They've been slow to regain that momentum, she added.

"They all said, 'Let's wait. Let's do this federally if we can,'" she said in an interview. "Things haven't picked up again."

For more on this topic, see also Legislator: Secession is an option and Gooch wants ban on addressing climate change by Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Jim Bruggers.

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