Five Decades of Preparation: Why It's Taken Congress So Long to Act on Climate

The Senate bill avoided the political pitfalls of past legislative attempts by only offering incentives to reduce climate pollution, not taxes.
WASHINGTON — In 1969, President Richard Nixon's adviser, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, wrote a note describing a surprising future. Rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere caused by burning oil, gas and coal, Moynihan wrote, would dangerously warm the planet, melt glaciers and raise seas. “Goodbye New York,” Mr. Moynihan wrote. “Goodbye Washington, by the way.
Fifty-three years later, Congress is on the verge of finally addressing what Mr. Moynihan called "the carbon dioxide problem." ”
On Sunday, Senate Democrats passed a $369 billion bill to move the country away from fossil fuels and toward solar, l wind and other renewable energies. If the House passes the legislation later this week as expected, it will mark the nation's first major climate law, as scientists warn that nations have only a few years left to reduce carbon dioxide enough to avoid a planetary catastrophe.
Once enacted, the new law is expected to help reduce the country's greenhouse pollution by about 40% below 2005 levels by by the end of this decade. That's not enough to avoid the worst impacts of a warming planet, but it would be a huge down payment and the biggest climate action ever taken by the United States.
"Finally, now we've crossed a major threshold," said former Vice President Al Gore, who as a lawmaker held the first congressional hearings on the subject in 1982 and shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with climatologists for their joint climate awareness efforts.currency. "I never imagined for a moment that it would take so long."
All said that the compelling evidence that climate change has already happened – in the form of wildfires, droughts, storms and terrifyingly extreme floods afflicting every corner of the United States – has helped build political support. Increasingly, the sheer volume of real-time data has overwhelmed the well-funded, decades-long strategy of oil, gas and coal companies to sow doubt about the seriousness of climate change.
ImagePresident Richard Nixon and his adviser Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1970.Credit...Associated Press
ImageThe Somerset Operating in Somerset Company in Somerset, N.Y., was the last coal-fired power plant in the state when it closed in 2020. Cheap natural gas helped accelerate the decline of coal. Credit...Libby March for The New York Times
But they also pointed to a shift in strategy, swapping what experts say is the most effective way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a tax on...

World Aug 7, 2022 0 81 Add to Reading List

Five Decades of Preparation: Why It's Taken Congress So Long to Act on Climate

The Senate bill avoided the political pitfalls of past legislative attempts by only offering incentives to reduce climate pollution, not taxes.

WASHINGTON — In 1969, President Richard Nixon's adviser, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, wrote a note describing a surprising future. Rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere caused by burning oil, gas and coal, Moynihan wrote, would dangerously warm the planet, melt glaciers and raise seas. “Goodbye New York,” Mr. Moynihan wrote. “Goodbye Washington, by the way.

Fifty-three years later, Congress is on the verge of finally addressing what Mr. Moynihan called "the carbon dioxide problem." ”

On Sunday, Senate Democrats passed a $369 billion bill to move the country away from fossil fuels and toward solar, l wind and other renewable energies. If the House passes the legislation later this week as expected, it will mark the nation's first major climate law, as scientists warn that nations have only a few years left to reduce carbon dioxide enough to avoid a planetary catastrophe.

Once enacted, the new law is expected to help reduce the country's greenhouse pollution by about 40% below 2005 levels by by the end of this decade. That's not enough to avoid the worst impacts of a warming planet, but it would be a huge down payment and the biggest climate action ever taken by the United States.

"Finally, now we've crossed a major threshold," said former Vice President Al Gore, who as a lawmaker held the first congressional hearings on the subject in 1982 and shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with climatologists for their joint climate awareness efforts.currency. "I never imagined for a moment that it would take so long."

All said that the compelling evidence that climate change has already happened – in the form of wildfires, droughts, storms and terrifyingly extreme floods afflicting every corner of the United States – has helped build political support. Increasingly, the sheer volume of real-time data has overwhelmed the well-funded, decades-long strategy of oil, gas and coal companies to sow doubt about the seriousness of climate change.

ImagePresident Richard Nixon and his adviser Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1970.Credit...Associated Press

ImageThe Somerset Operating in Somerset Company in Somerset, N.Y., was the last coal-fired power plant in the state when it closed in 2020. Cheap natural gas helped accelerate the decline of coal. Credit...Libby March for The New York Times

But they also pointed to a shift in strategy, swapping what experts say is the most effective way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, a tax on...