Clean Energy Policy Needs More Bipartisanship, Less Rhetoric
A recent Associated Press story out of Michigan underscores a principle in clean energy policy development at the state level that is often missing in Washington. The story offers a microcosm of the ideal that should be expected by a forward-thinking nation of its leadership, instead of the sniping from political interests who, seeking to win at any costs, produce nothing except empty political rhetoric for use in election season sound bites. The AP story provides a lesson in bipartisanship.
According to the Associated Press, Dianne Bynum, the Michigan House’s first woman Democratic leader, and Mark Pischea, one of the state’s top Republican political consultants, have joined together to promote a measure requiring Michigan’s biggest utilities to generate 25 percent of their total electricity from renewable energy resources by 2025.
Despite the fact that Bynum, herself now a political consultant, and Pischea have come at multiple issues from totally opposite viewpoints, they have come together to collect the signatures necessary to get the provision enhancing the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard on the November ballot (the measure would replace an existing requirement of 10 percent in renewables by 2015).
Michigan Democrats in support of the initiative, according to the AP story, see at as a boost to technology innovation and an improved environment, while Republicans campaigning for the measure say it’s an economic issue that helps major companies in the state that have made big investments in “green energy” technologies like solar panels and wind turbines.
That Bynum, who has been the target in years past of Pischea attack ads while she ran for state legislative office, and Pischea, a former deputy executive director of the National Republican Congressional Committee, could find common ground in their pursuit of a clean energy future is heartening and suggests that maybe some at the local and state level can provide national lawmakers with a model of collaboration.
Of course, the Michigan campaign is hardly the first and only viable, state-level bipartisan effort to accelerate the development of renewable energy as a means of creating jobs and finding cleaner sources of power.
There are Renewable Portfolio Standards in place in states around the country, all market-based policies that are supported by Democratic and Republican leaders alike. In fact, like Michigan, more than half of the 31 states with RPSs have strengthened them since putting them in place, providing jobs while having a virtually zero statistically-significant impact on electric rates over the past decade.
It’s not as if bipartisanship in the pursuit of sustainable solutions to our nation’s energy challenges is unprecedented in Congress. The Energy Title of the 2008 Farm Bill, which offered a multitude of programs and funding aimed at producing the next generation of biofuels, is a prime example of what can be done when political rhetoric is given a rest and lawmakers work to pursue a common goal of improving the economy, particularly in rural America.
And the fact that members from both sides of the aisle came together last month to vote to extend many of those programs and guarantee funding for them in a Senate Agriculture Committee 2012 Farm Bill proposal is a high point.
The fear is that it could be an almost singular high point, given that the quality of debate is expected to erode the nearer the November elections approach. There is always room for legitimate debate among those who philosophically disagree. But lawmakers for too many recent years have been more interested in scoring political points rather than pursuing the people’s business.
The 25x’25 Alliance commends those lawmakers who see the benefits of working together, in spite of different party affiliations. The Alliance also calls on all renewable energy advocates to reach out to their elected officials, cite the solid examples of bipartisanship like those in Michigan and other states that have jointly pursued strong sustainable energy policies, and remind them that putting the people before politics is critical to our economic health.
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