Read the President’s remarks Friday night after the House passed the measure most Capitol Hill staff and press referred to as the Waxman-Markey climate bill. You’ll notice some words that the President never speaks: “climate,” “warming,” “greenhouse,” “carbon,” “cap-and-trade,” or “emissions.”
If you went by President Obama’s words alone, you would think this bill had nothing to do with capping greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to battle climate change. He has vague talk of praising “action” and “change” over “inaction” and the “status quo.” He talks about “clean energy,” and once about “pollution.” But he completely ignores the aspect of this bill that garnered almost all of the media, lobbyist, and congressional attention: that the bill, for the first time in history, regulates the emission of carbon dioxide from many U.S. sources.
Does this reflect a White House perception that climate change is a losing issue?
Well, the chart at right (click here to see it more clearly), from a poll taken by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (a group that did not oppose the bill) shows that only 13% of those polled would put up with even a 10% increase in electricity bill for the sake of reducing emissions.
