U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts has been crusading on climate-change issues for decades, pushing for reductions in power-plant and automobile emissions, and seeing some success and many setbacks.
At an environmental forum at Boston College Monday, Markey said he believes Pope Francis’s words on climate during his U.S. visit are recasting the debate.
“We have to lead, and the rest of the world will follow us, and that's what the pope is actually calling for. He's saying: ‘What can you do’? ‘’
“We already know that it's an environmental crisis, we know it's a national security crisis, but he added that extra component of being a moral crisis’’ with the world’s most impoverished people likely to suffer the worst impacts of rising sea levels, extreme heat and drought, and more violent weather events.
President Obama's top science advisor, John Holdren, also spoke at the event and said in his view, science confirms all the pope's assertions about the human-made causes and effects of climate change. But Holdren disagreed with the pope about the world's nations’ ability to mitigate and adapt
“The encyclical in some passages is a bit too dismissive of the potential of technological approaches to emission reduction, and a bit too dismissive, in my opinion, of the use of market approaches in driving emission reduction and positive technological change,’’ such as implementing taxes on carbon dioxide emissions to put a value on reducing them, Holdren said.
Obama’s set a goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, and raising average automobile fuel efficiency to 54.5 miles per gallon, reflecting widespread use of electric cars and great efficiency for gas- and diesel-powered cars, and replacement of coal-fired power plants with natural gas and renewables.
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Republicans argue that Obama’s plans would be economically devastating, leading to higher prices for energy and hundreds of thousands of jobs, with no guarantee China and developing nations will agree to take any comparable action to reduce carbon emissions.
Markey said he expects Republican majorities in Congress will try to go on record opposing Obama’s plan in advance of a major United Nations summit in Paris in December where Obama and advocates hope nations will vote on binding commitments to climate action. But because Republicans are four votes short of the 60-senator supermajority required by Senate rules, Markey said, “We're on a path, and the Republicans have no capacity to be able to reverse any of these decisions which are being made by the Obama administration.’’
“The Democrats have the votes in the Senate to be able to block any efforts by the Republicans to embarrass President Obama in Paris,’’ Markey said, “and we will keep those promises which he is making to the world.’’
