What Do National Security & Cap and Trade Have in Common?
As the heat intensifies in Washington ahead of the Senate’s release of a climate change bill, supporters have now found that touting President Obama’s climate plan as a vehicle for creating millions of clean-energy jobs, isn’t cutting it. Now they are pushing another strategy – the benefits the bill has for national security.
A recent poll conducted by climate bill supporters tested voter opinions on the statement that “global warming will destabilize developing countries, creating the conditions for war and a breeding ground for terrorism – and lead to mass movements of people from places like Mexico and Central American that will overwhelm our borders.”
The national poll found that “voters agreed far more with that stance than with a statement echoing Republican arguments against the bill – chiefly, that it would raise energy prices and kill American jobs,” so in an effort to gain additional support for the bill, supporters are “fusing their security message with their ongoing focus on the economic opportunities of industries such as wind turbine and solar panel manufacturing.”
The August uproar over health-care reform almost muted public discourse over the House global warming bill, but things are just getting started up again as combatants anticipate consideration of a similar proposal in the Senate. In recent weeks, opponents of the House measure, including the oil lobby, the NAM and the National Federation of Independent Business, ignited a campaign in the Mountain West and Midwest protesting that the House legislation would be a job killer.
