Climate change issues heat up Vt. House race

Author: Derek Schlickeisen

Democratic House candidate Peter Welch headlined a climate change rally at the College last Friday, taking the opportunity to tie his opponent to Republican inaction on the issue.

With the race still close just over four weeks before Election Day, Welch argued that Martha Rainville's election would support her party leadership's stance against significant limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Welch, now president of Vermont's state Senate, said in his speech that Democrats need control of the House to enact meaningful global warming legislation.

"This election is about whether or not we're going to have a Congress that will tackle this issue," Welch told the roughly 70 students and town activists gathered in the Twilight Auditorium. "As long as Republicans chair the Committee on Energy and Commerce, there will be no consideration of global warming legislation."

In an election that could leave either party with a razor-thin majority in the House, the outcome of Vermont's race could potentially play an outsized role in setting the course of national politics for the next two years. With recent surveys giving Welch a lead just outside the margin of error for political polling, analysts predict that Rainville could yet pull an upset in a state that has trended leftward in recent years.

"I would say at this point that the most probable outcome is a narrow Welch win," said Professor of Political Science Eric Davis, a respected observer of Vermont politics, "but I'd put about a 30 percent probability on a narrow Rainville win."

Davis explained that Rainville has remained competitive in the race by charting a moderate course on issues like global warming as a means of distinguishing herself from President Bush, who remains far less popular in Vermont than in the nation as a whole. In her latest television ad, Rainville promises to "join the fight against global warming" and calls for a reduction in the United States' use of foreign oil.

"Welch is going to hammer her on the Iraq war, so what she needs to do is find issues where she can distinguish herself from the administration and the Republican majority in Congress," said Davis.

Such distinctions don't matter, say Welch and his supporters, because Rainville's election as a Republican would simply keep a party that has done little on global warming in power.

"Martha Rainville will vote for Dennis Hastert as speaker," Welch told The Campus. "My opponent is about two more years of the Bush agenda."

To help make his argument for change, Welch brought with him Oregon Democrat Earl Blumenauer, a long-time House proponent of environmental protections. Blumenauer, whose whirlwind tour with Welch also included campaign stops at American Flatbread and Happy Valley Orchards, called his friend the clear choice for young people who want to make their voices heard in national politics.

"Vermont is going to have an opportunity to send a signal that might make a difference in the direction of the House of Representatives," said Blumenauer in an interview. "He will be a breath of fresh air and a vote for change."

At the College, however, Welch and Blumenauer may have been preaching to the proverbial choir: many students who attended Friday's rally went directly from the auditorium to a launch event outside for the Carbon Neutrality Initiative, a plan by which the College can achieve carbon-neutral greenhouse gas emissions by 2016. With leadership from the climate change-oriented Sunday Night Group and other student organizations, the plan will be presented to the Board of Trustees this February.

"The College has always been a leader in sustainability," said Sunday Night Group member Sierra Murdoch '09, "so I think that it's really important for the College to be at the forefront of this issue by reducing its carbon emissions."

In introducing Welch at the rally, Bill McKibben, the College's scholar in residence in Environmental Studies, echoed Murdoch's praise of the College for its involvement with the global warming issue.

"I think that Middlebury has emerged as one of the most important places in the state - and indeed in the country - in thinking about climate change," he said. "There's more spirit and energy and intellectual power around this question here at Middlebury College than just about anywhere else."

After McKibben's introduction and warm applause from the audience, Welch turned to the College's leadership in addressing climate change.

"I want to clap for you," said Welch. "We want Congress to pass a global warming bill that will pass the Middlebury-McKibben test."

Many at the rally seemed supportive of Welch on the climate change issue. Surrounded by students sporting "Welch for Congress" stickers, McKibben cast the outcome this November in stark terms.

"We're running out of elections to waste," he said. "There's a possibility, especially if control of one or both of the houses of Congress changes hands, that we'll see some legislation finally. It's beyond belief that the United States hasn't passed a single real law to begin to deal with this problem."

Antoinette Rangel, president of the Middlebury College Democrats, said that the Welch-Rainville race offered a unique opportunity to those students at the College who are interested in the challenge posed by global warming.

"The Welch campaign opens up a lot of great opportunities for Middlebury students because Vermont politics is so grassroots," said Rangel. Referring to Welch staffers like Andrew Savage '03.5, who serves as the campaign's communications director, she said that the state's politics proved especially accessible to recent graduates.

"It's a great chance to get your feet wet in the political realm coming right out of college."