It’s Getting Hot In Here

Cross-posted from the Breakthrough Blog.

It’s not just about framing—“new energy jobs” are the best and only shot at bringing down the political impasse between America and the energy policy it needs.

The effort to pass a sensible climate and energy policy is not working. I don’t just mean we’re not getting the right content in legislation—whether it’s trading or taxing or new investment. I want to face facts: right now there isn’t serious political support, or even interest, for an “energy bill” with climate change solutions at its heart. Not from most Democrats in Congress, and not from the vast majority of Americans, whose support is desperately needed by us climate and clean energy advocates.

This can be our crucial moment—a point of deep popular unrest over energy hikes and economic decline. In the self-righteous furor of “drill here, now” and in the sparring over loafers and houses, we see a political establishment desperate to connect with a distrustful electorate. At this sudden crossroads, both we and the defenders of the fossil economy have an incredible opportunity to define the way ahead. So now, we can’t spend one more day still trying to convince 41% of America to come to our 10% side. We have to go to them, and meet them where they’re at.

I think we have one shot; our legislative solution cannot be a “clean energy bill” or a “climate change bill” which require good economic times to stay afloat. It must be a “new jobs bill”, which—to work at all—requires sweeping change of the energy foundations of our economy.

And what do most Americans say they want, now? Cheap energy and a healthy economy have been the top political demands of the year.

This is a godsend! Isn’t it amazing good fortune that with a new energy jobs bill, we can give most people exactly the kind of answer they’re asking for? Populism—a strategy that embraces the terms and opinions of the majority—can provide the solutions to this economic, energy, and climate dilemma.

Continue reading ‘Go To Them: New Energy Jobs and the Populism We Need’