Score one in the corner of the environmentalists, but just add additional complications for those trying to push through climate bills to finally bring the United States into the 21st century. The massive oil spill created by the collapse of BP’s oil reg created immediate ecological and environmental concerns, but the repercussions were sure to reverberate throughout industry and government for some time.
Should the weather not cooperate and the massive oil spill reach the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and other coastal states, the hangover will certainly last for a long time. Prior to the failure of the oil rig, passage of climate bills in 2010 was by no means a certainty. Politics and economic issues weighed heavily on the minds of legislators as they considered the Senate options. Progress was slow indeed.
Republicans tend to favor an increase in offshore oil drilling. They look at it as a way of achieving energy independence, even when every barrel of oil created in such a way is automatically floated on the open market pool anyway. It’s not as if purchasers have the option of selecting oil from a particular location or source. As such, the notion of oil independence is something of a misnomer.
The issues now created by the giant oil spill could certainly help alternative energy proponents who are calling for further oil drilling projects to be canceled. They say that those funds should be diverted to wind and solar, although maybe the best chance of trying to push climate bills through would be to divert those funds toward nuclear and “clean coal” instead.
It is clear that climate bills under consideration by the Senate are very different from those passed by the House of Representatives in 2009. At that time, the ACES Act was very far-reaching and even included provisions for a comprehensive “cap and trade” option which would certainly seek to cut back on carbon emissions nationwide.
The President has said that climate bills are essential to his administration’s policy and as such the BP disaster could not have come at a more inappropriate time for those who are behind climate change legislation. The United States is already seen as dragging its heels in this area and international advocates are tearing their hair out as they point to the growing problem of global warming.
The Kyoto protocol, ratified by the majority of countries around the world, agreed that climate change could not be controlled comprehensively unless some form of stringent action was taken by each country. While the European Union is far ahead of the majority of other countries, the United States of course fail to ratify Kyoto.
When 2011 comes around, the United States Congress may well reconsider climate bills after the November elections are out of the way. In any case, the BP disaster shows us how we need to revisit our energy infrastructure and cut our reliance on these expensive forms of energy, down to the individual organization level.
Daniel Stouffer has a lot of information about the climate bills and how a visit to www.verisae.com can be of use to you.
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