On March 30, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) and Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) sent a memo to Speaker Pelosi highlighting their efforts to date on climate change. The memo detailed actions taken by the Committee and the conclusions they have reached so far.
This memo is important both because A) it shows the state of thinking of these two leaders in the climate change debate; and B) they are telling the Speaker that they intend to continue to build a substantive record to determine the facts and move "at a deliberate pace that allows for ideas to develop and solution that enjoy broad support to emerge."
It also appears to be a subtle way for the two chairmen to tell the Speaker that they are not likely to send her comprehensive climate legislation as quickly as she would like (before the July 4 recess) and to alert her to the fact that there is little consensus on how to tackle the big climate change issues.
Reps. Dingell and Boucher wrote that the following "general themes" have emerged from their hearings:
The questions that have been raised about the "science" of global warming, and whether human activity is to blame, have largely been settled.
The consensus view regarding responses to climate change is that any effort must be economy-wide and not limited to a few sectors of the economy;
In order to combat climate change, technology must advance. This will require significant investment in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology, so that the vast coal reserves of the U.S. can continue to be used to produce electricity;
Developing countries must become engaged on this issue. This has been a particular concern for Republicans on the Committee.
States and local governments are already acting to combat climate change.