OP-ED Welch's climate opportunity

Author: Ben Wessel

Middlebury has long been at the forefront of the climate policy debate in this country. Scholars like Bill McKibben, John Elder and Jon Isham, and the students of the Sunday Night Group (SNG), are known throughout the country as premier climate advocates. Midd-kid initiatives like Step It Up, 350.org, and MiddShift have become models for grassroots organizing around the climate issue. It should come as no surprise, then, that Middlebury students are on the scene as Congress starts to debate the most important climate bill it has seen thus far.

SNG was privileged enough to discuss the ins and outs of this bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACESA), with Andrew Savage '03.5, legislative director for Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.). Welch, a longtime supporter of Middlebury environmental initiatives and a veritable climate champion in Congress, is on the influential committee that begins dissecting the ACESA this week. In fact, Welch and his staff wrote the entire portion of the bill regarding energy efficiency incentives, an effort that the SNG applauds as a necessary step to combating the challenge.

There is, however, a central part of the bill that must be resolved in the coming weeks as it moves through committee. The bill creates a cap-and-trade system to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. by having polluters buy and sell pollution permits. The big sticking point is whether businesses that burn a lot of carbon are given the permits for free or whether the government will auction off the right to pollute. As the Wall Street Journal explained recently, the EU's cap-and-trade system that gave away the permits for free "let utilities pocket billions of euros in windfall profits, because they got the permits for free, yet were able to pass on higher electricity costs to consumers."

The U.S. Congress cannot afford to make this same mistake. This issue goes beyond climate science and basic economics - it's about justice. The government should auction 100 percent of the permits, as polluters should have to pay for the harmful emissions they put into the atmosphere. Full auction avoids even more government spending in this time of billion-dollar bailouts, and returns auction revenue to the public policy process for spending decisions. How this money is spent will affect the speed and cost of the clean energy revolution this country so desperately needs. The Sunday Night Group calls on Welch to continue his great work on climate change and to become a vocal and strong-willed advocate for a 100 percent auction of permits in order to promote a just and fair solution to the climate crisis.