John Kerry: A Step Forward on Energy

[ProSense]

John Kerry

A Step Forward on Energy

I’m a bit bleary eyed admittedly after midnight votes, and about to do an event in Boston on the energy fight, but I just wanted to come back here and tell you how good it feels to have gotten something good done in the Senate instead of just stopping bad things from happening.

A year ago I was battling to stop drilling in ANWR. Last night – finally -- after years of battling and five years after we introduced the Kerry-McCain legislation to raise fuel efficiency standards -- we’ve done it in the Senate.

This is something that never would’ve happened with Bill Frist as the Majority Leader, but with Harry Reid leading the Senate we were able to finally pass the first significant rise in CAFÉ standards in over a generation.

I can’t tell you what a difference this makes. Yes, this has been an issue for me for many years, and I took a lot of heat for this during the 2004 race – you might remember the Bush Cheney campaign saying we were going to cost jobs in Michigan, when the truth is this is going to create good jobs in Michigan.

But after all the hits we took, after all the scare tactics, truth won out last night. Why? Because all of the activists of the Democratic Party helped to deliver a Democratic Congress, and now we can start the long process of building an energy economy that can work for us in the 21st century and can address climate change instead of making it a hell of a lot worse.

This isn’t the perfect solution to the CAFÉ debate, and the overall energy bill still lacks some important components. But I never thought this would happen right away, and legislative change can be a long battle of attrition. In fact, you bet that’s exactly what it will be – more on that soon. (In fact, in Boston I’m unveiling a scorecard of what we achieved and what we missed and the work that remains to be done.)

But bottom line, we’re moving the right way on this, and with continued pressure and continued work, we can change the way we get our energy and the way we do business.

The nitty gritty details of what’s in the energy bill can be found here, if you’d like to get the full run-down. But this is an historic moment; fuel fleet efficiency standards have been stagnant for 20 years, while oil prices have skyrocketed and our climate crisis has gotten more acute. Finally, we have a Congress that isn’t burying its collective head in the sand over this and beginning the long process of moving forward.

We also managed to include a great number of other environmental initiatives in this energy bill, including support for furthering the technology on carbon capture and sequestration. (Something I worked with the folks at MIT on and I think holds just huge potential.) There are also provisions providing support for the development of more efficient lighting materials and building materials, as well as authorizing a program for electric drive transportation. And we set specific guidelines for the reduction of gasoline usage from projected levels and required biennial reports on the progress toward meeting those goals.

So what’s next to do? We were very close to getting my major tax package included in this bill, one that rolled back $9 billion of tax breaks for big oil companies and added incentives for plug-in hybrids and many other environmentally beneficial technologies. We are only one vote short of breaking the GOP filibuster on that, and, when Tim Johnson returns to the Senate from his courageous battle back to health, we can try again to pass that.

We still need to pass legislation demanding that our nation gets 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. Proposals to set requirements like that were blocked by (you guessed it!) a GOP filibuster. But the American people are demanding action, so we’re gaining converts every vote.

This energy bill is not the single silver bullet solution to our energy and climate crises. But after years of fighting a losing battle to get any progress toward solving those problems, I am very happy to finally be moving in the right direction. The momentum is on our side on this, and we’ll continue to create truly revolutionary change in our economy.

Thanks for all of your help.

{cross-posted at Gristmill}

Also posted at JohnKerry.com.

[fedupinBushcountry]

1. This is definitely

a huge win and I know Senator Kerry will not stop until we make it right.

[beachmom]

2. Arianna Huffington was clearly surprised this CAFE change went through.

Nice quote from her:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/dysfunction-junction-how_b_53238.html

UPDATE: So Levin, Stabenow, and the auto industry's efforts to water down the increase in CAFE standards failed. Late last night, the Senate passed a comprehensive energy bill that included the first significant increase in fuel efficiency standards in 24 years. The measure for the first time puts SUVs, van, and light trucks under the same regulation as passenger cars. An automaker's entire fleet will have to average 35 mpg by 2020 -- an overall increase of 40 percent (though still lagging behind the standards already in place in much of the world). John Kerry, a longtime proponent of raising mileage standards, called the legislation "a great step toward addressing record gas prices, reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, and breaking the stranglehold of foreign oil."



It's kind of funny because this success sort of ruined her essay about "dysfunctional" Washington. Yes, there is dysfunction, but things are beginning to change.

[ProSense]

3. Thanks for posting this.

The Repubs stopped the climate change bill and are obstructing the deadline for withdrawal from Iraq so the first progress on efficiency standards in over two decades is a significant achievement.

[ProSense]

4. Kick! n/t

Progress is getting this bill passed when four Democrats vote against it. A few weeks ago the climate change bill failed and a Democrat was among those whoe voted against it.

[ProSense]

5. Kick! n/t