Is hyper-bipolar a word?
If so, it would aptly describe the global warming policy views of
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who this year also has additional
roles as chairman of both the Democratic Governors
Association and the Western
Governors Association.
Last month Schweitzer
appeared on HBO’s Real
Time with Bill Maher, and shocked the host with his
views on cap-and-trade energy rationing legislation that is
moving through Congress:
Maher: …it’s an incentive to make clean energy.
Schweitzer: Maybe.
Maher (shocked): Maybe?!
Schweitzer: It also says to the biggest utilities in America,
“We’re going to add a trillion dollars to your bottom line.
We’re going to franchise you, and only you, to be the only
producers of CO2.” I think it’s the wrong approach.
Maher: You do?!
Yes Bill, he does. Maybe. But he didn’t before. Probably.
Gov. Schweitzer still (we think) believes that, despite leveling
(if not lowering) global temperatures since the late 1990s, that
fossil fuel combustion to energize human wants and needs is
dangerous. All those byproduct greenhouse gases overheat the
earth and cause all sorts of trouble, you see.
Back in December 2005 Schweitzer created a blue-ribbon panel to
recommend policy actions to reduce those nasty gases. The result
was the Montana
Climate Change Advisory Group, which delivered its
recommendations to the governor in November of 2007.
Schweitzer was so inspired that he joined six other state
governors (and two Canadian provincial ministers) as members of
the Western
Climate Initiative, whose primary goal was to form a joint
carbon emissions reduction agreement. His new partners welcomed
him aboard: “We look forward to working with you and your
representatives over the coming months as we move toward our
August 2008 goal to design a regional cap-and-trade program.”
That move comported with earlier statements by Schweitzer,
including testimony before the Senate Finance Committee in
February 2007. “I’m just going to give you some suggestions…,” he
said. “Develop a cap-and-trade system. We have states that are
going it alone. Washington, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico and
California announced yesterday. There will be other coalitions.
We can’t have a cap-and-trade system that is regional. We need a
cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide that is national.”
And shortly before joining WCI, in an article that explained many
governors’ support for cap-and-trade legislation co-sponsored by
Democrat Sen. Joe Lieberman and Republican Sen. John Warner,
Schweitzer told the New York Times, “Here’s a novel
concept for Congress. Do something. Anything. Move.” The article
also noted an Environmental Defense-sponsored television ad in
support of the bill, in which Schweitzer appeared with California
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
Then shortly after the November election last year, Schweitzer
(as vice chairman) co-signed a letter
with Huntsman to President Obama, on behalf of the Western
Governors Association. The pair urged
immediate action to solve “our energy dilemma,” using code
words for cap-and-trade: “[We] propose a mandatory national
system for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that makes maximum
use of market-based mechanisms.”
But the next month Schweitzer jerked away from his embrace of
cap-and-trade, in an interview with the Great Falls Tribune. “I’m
not a proponent of a carbon cap-and-trade system,” he said. “I
think that it tends to transfer a lot of wealth from consumers of
electricity to utilities.”
This was only three months after WCI produced its design
recommendations for a cap-and-trade agreement among its members,
including Montana. The plan provided for emissions allowances,
carbon offsets, and auctioning permits — all vital elements for
such a system. According to WCI’s website, the member governors
announced they “have designed a pioneering stand-alone regional
cap-and-trade program that will immediately begin to address
climate change in the absence of broader national or
international standards.”
In February this year Schweitzer and his WCI partners released
their
work plan for the next two years. “Over the past few months
as we have seen the world economy falter, questions have been
raised as to whether this is the right time to be moving forward
with a cap-and-trade program,” they said. “We believe that it is
important to move forward with the cap-and-trade program, while
acknowledging the need for flexibility in the short term due to
the current economic situation.”
And then last month the Montanan who promotes himself as
moderate — now chairman of WGA —
vigorously defended WGA’s
oversight of WCI. The National Taxpayers Union had challenged
Schweitzer and his gubernatorial colleagues to provide an
accounting of its work and demonstrate that all WGA’s members
approved participation in WCI, as its rules require.
Considering that Schweitzer has poured so much passion into
Montana’s participation and development of a cap-and-trade
program, why shouldn’t Maher (and the rest of us) be confused?
Meanwhile the Democrats still adhere to global warming as a
signature issue, with cap-and-trade as their definitive means to
solve the “problem.” With 18 incumbent governors facing potential
re-election in 2010 (not to mention two this year), it might not
be the best time for the flip-flopping Schweitzer to be out front
of the their Governors Association as promoter and fundraiser.
