Chris Brooks, a managing partner for Western Home Journal magazine, traveled from Whitefish to Washington D.C. in early February for meetings with Montana Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus to urge them to take action on legislation that would limit carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuel and lay the groundwork for growth in so-called “green” jobs.
But though Brooks, representing Montana Business Leaders for Clean Energy, drew encouragement from the senators’ interest, he knows the prospect of such a bill passing the gridlocked Senate this year is tough.
“It is a very, very uphill challenge,” Brooks said. “All we can do is keep the fuel on the fire.”
In an interview with the Beacon, Tester ranked the passage of a carbon emissions bill – be it cap-and-trade or cap-and-dividend or something else – at around three or four on the Senate’s list of priorities, behind job creation, health care and banking reform. All of which makes the future of a climate and energy bill unclear.
“The bottom line is it’s got to work and it’s got to be effective; it can’t just be something for show,” Tester said. “My crystal ball is really cloudy. I mean, I can’t tell you at this point in time what gets done and what doesn’t get done because it’s very partisan right now.”
In order for him to support it, Tester said he must feel confident the bill wouldn’t push energy jobs overseas, nor does he like the idea of any bill that establishes a market for trading carbon futures.
“I’m not crazy about putting it on Wall Street and having them trade carbon at the whim of folks who want to future it and sell it short and sell it long and make derivatives out of it and credit default swaps and everything else,” Tester said. “I wouldn’t do it, I just won’t.”
Brooks’ group, comprised of about 150 business people from around Montana, is pushing for a bill that both caps carbon emissions and lays in place the incentives to develop job growth in clean energy and efficiency technology.
“The ‘Silicon Valley’ for clean tech, if we don’t do anything, will end up in Beijing,” Brooks said.
Three main climate bills are currently under consideration in the Senate: the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill passed by the House; a climate bill co-sponsored by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.; and a cap-and-dividend bill by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.
“Those are the three that I know of are on the table,” Tester said. “It’s going to take some work to get those through.”