Tag: Emily Atkin

As the results of the midterms continue to trickle in, one thing is clear: Bipartisan climate action in the US is over. The biggest loss of the night, facing millions of dollars of opposition by the fossil fuel industry, was Initiative 1631, Washington’s attempt to be the first state to tax carbon. On election night, Pelosi said the Democrats would “strive for bipartisanship” with their newly achieved majority in the House of Representatives. Carbon taxes are more suited to a scenario in which we have more time. But time is short now, there’s no more time left to “ramp up” a lukewarm American policy. Here’s what I think happens next in American climate action: Instead of continuing to argue for a carbon tax or cap-and-trade, Democrats should instead rally behind the Green New Deal set of ideas. Packaging them together under the urgency of climate change is something that will rally people, send the appropriate signals of the scale of the problem, and reward voters with a better society at the end of the day, rather than penalizing them for continuing to use old forms of energy. A good climate platform will talk about climate as the basis for all other issues: health care, jobs and the economy, immigration, and decency to our fellow humans. A good climate platform means truly, utterly, laying it all out. A good climate policy isn’t just bipartisan; it rises above politics.