The Other Side

Many of us when we hear “The Other Side” think of that place beyond the here and now… the place where those that have passed on from this realm live on eternally. ‘The other side” is a place of peace and enlightenment.

Unfortunately for those of us who have also been following the climate and energy legislation this phrase has meant anything but enlightenment. There was Senator Barbara Boxer and all her Democratic colleagues referencing “the other side” continually during the Senate Environmental and Public Works committee meetings this week to mark up the Kerry-Boxer climate and energy bill. “The other side” was a row of empty seats. The "other side" was absent – boycotting the committee meetings because they wanted more EPA analysis on the bill, despite 340,000 pages of analysis from 50 modeled scenarios. Didn’t seem sufficient to the Republicans despite the fact the committee reported out the previous climate bill (the Climate Security Act, or otherwise known as Lieberman-Warner) in November 2007 before any EPA analysis was done (in March 2008).

The “other side” refused to recognize that the EPA analysis on the Kerry-Boxer bill was actually unprecedented. You could note Senator Boxer’s frustration by the number of times she reminded her colleagues this analysis was “unprecedented.”

The “other side" didn’t think the EPA economic analysis was satisfactory, and yet didn’t bother to take their seats and ask any questions when an EPA staffer appeared before the committee specifically to answer questions on the economic analysis. No Republicans bothered to show up. Evidently they were getting more satisfaction by staying away and abdicating their responsibilities. They didn't show up despite the fact that Chairwoman Boxer noted that Majority Leader Harry Reid had committed to another EPA analysis once all the related bills from numerous other committees are melded together for a final bill to be considered by the full Senate. Still a no-show by the Republicans.

Senator Boxer wasn’t intimated and she didn’t back down. She carried out her responsibilities as Chairwoman of the Committee and moved the bill out of committee on Thursday. In a statement, Senator Boxer noted, a majority of the Committee believes that S. 1733, and the efforts that will be built upon it, will move us away from foreign oil imports that cost Americans one billion dollars a day, it will protect our children from pollution, create millions of clean energy jobs, and stimulate billions of dollars of private investment. We are pleased that despite the Republican boycott, we have been able to move the bill.”

Unfortunately, the “other side” still needs to be enlightened on the reasons why a climate and energy bill is so critical to our economic and environmental security.