Depoliticize Emissions Issue

Last fall the Clinton administration and Republicans in Congress were irreconcilably divided over what steps Washington might take to encourage development of energy-efficient cars and power plants and other means to reduce fossil fuel emissions. The conflict flared in November, when the administration signed a global warming treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, which Republicans vowed never to discuss, much less vote to ratify.

Next week, John H. Chafee (R-R.I.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, hopes to introduce compromise legislation that could lift the fossil fuel debate above partisan mudslinging. His bill would reward U.S. companies that voluntarily agree to reduce fossil fuel emissions and would allocate credits to companies reducing them now.

Unfortunately, some environmental groups, taking a stand as irrationally hard-line as the one the Republicans took with the Kyoto Protocol, seek to defeat Chafee’s bill. The measure, they say, is “all carrot, no stick.” But their proposal to stiffly penalize fossil fuel emissions won’t fly in Washington.

Chafee’s bill is a first step toward encouraging companies--from coal plants to auto manufacturers--to reduce their fossil fuel emissions. Environmentalists ought to support it as a good start and lobby elsewhere for additional fossil fuel reductions. Congress should use the budget to reward forward-looking, low-polluting technologies. But prospects are dim. The Clinton administration itself has asked Congress to deliver big subsidies to wealthy fossil fuel companies.

Like many conflicts in Washington, this one has less to do with the purported policy objective--encouraging smart energy use--than with politics. Vice President Al Gore, for instance, has identified fossil fuel reduction as one of his top priorities as a presidential candidate, which makes it a hard issue for Republicans to support.

Wise legislators like Chafee know there is no national interest in turning emissions reductions into a partisan issue. All Americans will lose if the United States fails to emulate its competitors, from Britain to Japan, who are using tax dollars to encourage spending on energy-efficient technologies.