Sen. Cardin: Dems, Obama Never Connected BP Spill To The Need For Climate Change Legislation

The apparent death of comprehensive climate change legislation in the Senate is prompting the expected round of finger-pointing.

At the heart of the critique is the idea that the Democratic Party was given a rare opportunity (or lifeline) to get legislation through the Senate when the oil spill in the Gulf elevated the political conversation around energy reform. In the end, that opportunity was squandered.

On Friday, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) -- one of the Senate's leading proponents of comprehensive reform -- was asked about the inability of the party to translate the oil spill crisis into a firm policy achievement. He offered a fairly frank and self-reflective response: the president and Congress never made the sell.

"[I]t didn't ever get the connection... never in the eyes of the public," the Maryland Democrat said, during a sit-down with bloggers and reporters during the Netroots Nation conference in Las Vegas. "They saw the oil spill as an individual problem with one company more so than a dependency on oil. And I think that is probably the reason why we never made the connection. I think the president rightfully so is principally concerned with stopping the flow and the damage. Not so much about using that for promoting an energy bill. He did come to it later but the connection by then was too late. So we didn't get the bump that we needed. We got a little bit of a bump but not the bump we needed. It's unfortunate."

Cardin expressed some optimism about the possibility of re-engaging the issue of climate change next year. But he didn't hide his disappointment with recent developments. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-N.V.) has pledged to bring four separate (and smaller) pieces of legislation to address energy-related issues, including home retrofitting, higher fuel standards for heavy vehicles, water and land conservation and a comprehensive response to the Gulf spill. But while Cardin said he expected each of them to be passed, the timing for consideration is up in the air and the overall impact may fall short of what is desired.

"The reality of the situation, the calendar being what it is, we are not going to finish these four energy bills in these next two weeks," said the senator. "They are going to be on the calendar when we return."

"When I ran for the United States Senate," he added, "one of my major issues was energy. And if you don't price pollution, if you don't price carbon, then not only are we not true to ourselves but we are failing the international community."

Comments

[padrushka]

02:59 AM on 07/27/2010

we support a tough bill not another watered down version such as health and finance. been waiting for years but pulled support for latest gutted version. if it gets there it has to be right!! we do not have the luxury of waiting!

[FearlessFreep]

12:09 AM on 07/27/2010

When did "messaging" become a word?

[Please-Play-Fair]

04:07 PM on 07/26/2010

Sorry ... no way you can talk about GW or AGW and try to connect the dots with the oil righ explosion and spill. Unless they are trying to say that the ocean waters were 0.5 degrees warmer than normal which ultimately caused something to happen. Which would look foolish.

Six degrees of separation ... Americans are a little smarter than that.

[EvSmith]

06:18 PM on 07/26/2010

Oil monsters destroying environments all over the world. They are destroying our atmosphere and climate, Now they destroy the gulf with it's fishing and tourism industries along with the credibility of the White House. It's all connected.

[Please-Play-Fair]

02:20 AM on 07/27/2010

OK ... then call it what it is. But man caused global warming didn't cause the oil rig explosion or spill. I hope we all want to be off dependence of oil ... but no need to lie our way through it.

[emrogers]

01:20 AM on 07/27/2010

Six degrees of separation? Actually - most of us easily made the connection - how can't you?

[Please-Play-Fair]

02:20 AM on 07/27/2010

explain global warming tied to an oil explosion and oil spill if you are such a rocket scientist ...

[ghost geezer]

04:05 PM on 07/26/2010

We have a sign of life on earth, at large in Maryland. All tentacles on deck!

[GonzoLoungeLizard]

11:03 AM on 07/26/2010

This senator is talking bad on Obama and the British. He MUST be a racist then.

[Marcospinelli]

02:51 AM on 07/26/2010

Between the economic collapse and the oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, Obama has had one opportunity after another these past 18 months to put the US on the path to green sustainable energy with a robust, beefy, 'Manhattan Project'-style endeavor.

But he hasn't done that.

It would be the answer to all of our problems, from creating new manufacturing industries to employing millions.

Instead, Obama pays lip service to alternative energy projects, and devotes pennies to it.

[maxfax]

01:05 PM on 07/26/2010

Ultimately Obama's to blame, however his advisers keep him on a track of not dealing with the obvious and the numerous opportunities to address this and many other issues. People such as Senator Cardin and Dr. Dean make the effort to get the President's attention, but nothing seems to work.

[Marcospinelli]

02:36 AM on 07/26/2010

On Friday, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) -- one of the Senate's leading proponents of comprehensive reform -- was asked about the inability of the party to translate the oil spill crisis into a firm policy achievement. He offered a fairly frank and self-reflective response: the president and Congress never made the sell.

"[I]t didn't ever get the connection... never in the eyes of the public," the Maryland Democrat said, during a sit-down with bloggers and reporters during the Netroots Nation conference in Las Vegas. "They saw the oil spill as an individual problem with one company more so than a dependency on oil. And I think that is probably the reason why we never made the connection. I think the president rightfully so is principally concerned with stopping the flow and the damage. Not so much about using that for promoting an energy bill. He did come to it later but the connection by then was too late. So we didn't get the bump that we needed. We got a little bit of a bump but not the bump we needed. It's unfortunate."
================================================

Rahm Emanuel on The Wall Street Journal Network in November, 2008:

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. What I mean by that is that it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mzcbXi1Tkk&NR=1&feature=fvwp

[maxfax]

01:06 PM on 07/26/2010

""You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. What I mean by that is that it's an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before."

I guess Emanuel is good at talking the talk, not so good at walking it. He needs to go.

[Marcospinelli]

02:29 AM on 07/26/2010

Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama&Democrats want what they want. The DLC-controlled DemocraticParty gives lip service to all populist issues (like green sustainable energy, PublicHealthcare, banking reform, job stimulus, anti-war, closing Guantanamo, etc.).

If the Bush years taught us nothing else, it's that anyone can sell anything to Americans, if you're stolid & relentless in your sales pitch & tactics. It's not that Bush&R0ve were geniuses & knew something that nobody else knew; Bush&R0ve were just more ruthless (clumsy & careless many political graybeards would say) in doing what politicians & the parties had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans.

Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the nomination) & the oldest, most experienced politicians in our nation's history (including the Rove machine) by not having mastered these skills. Nor do Democratic politicians (more incumbents than ever, in office longer) not know how to do it. How do you think Democrats managed to keep impeaching Bush&Cheney off the table & have us still reelecting them, not marching on Washington with torches&pitchforks?

Obama&Democrats know how to do it -- They don't want to do it.

The trick for them has been to keep the many different populist groups believing that they really do support our issues, but they're merely inept. And to get us to keep voting for them despite their failure to deliver on any of our alleged shared objectives.

[cslib]

11:51 AM on 07/26/2010

So, true but I think that the Obama Administration isn't able to continue pulling the wool over the eyes of true progressives.

[Eagleman]

09:39 PM on 07/25/2010

Dems getting ready turn on Obama?

[Speechlesstx]

08:05 PM on 07/25/2010

Same as it ever was...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psJGHGeLSeE

[maximumride]

07:36 PM on 07/25/2010

it takes a lot of gaul to make a video to appear before the netroot convention and ask them to support you after the dems pull out of the climate bill legislation. as much as i try to be supportive of obama and his administration, sometimes their strategy makes no sense. and with the dems in the majority in both houses, i am perplexed. they have the majority. just go ahead and quit trying to win over the gopers.the progressives will quit whining if you just go ahead and do what needs to be down without cowtowing to the gop they stand for nothing, what part of that do the dems not understand?

[Scentedflower]

03:59 PM on 07/25/2010

Calm down Cardin! Calm down!

[parlimentMike]

02:43 PM on 07/25/2010

To those who are blaming the People for their addiction to oil, I say do you even know how oil moves your car? Do you have a care in the world about what makes you car move? I don't think most of us care if our car goes because of little explosions or an electric motor. We're not addicted to oil, we just like personal movement.

The decision that our movement is fueled by oil is made long before a consumer is offered a choice. Once again Congress has been bought off in the name of the American People. They write and pass the legislation shifting oil production costs onto the American taxpayer, sneaking it in as if it were an energy bill, when it's just welfare for wealthy oil men. They are the ones authorizing trillions for war, to protect the interests of the oil companies who bleed us, now both figuratively and literally. And they are the ones who are so owned by big oil, that they can't even gin up real outrage as a manifestly reckless oil company disrupts the lives of 15% of our population.

We're not addicted to oil, we are addicted to bad leadership, and the News Media are the pushers.

[soisay]

10:03 PM on 07/25/2010

You give only the tip of the iceberg. Private oil development profits, public expense (and lives) for military actions. Private oil profits, public expense at environmental cleanup (not just BP, but Alaska, Texas, California). Private oil profits, public expense at air and water contamination. Private oil profits, public expense for road construction, land acquisition, rights of way to create an unsustainable exurbia structure. If gas had its true cost; what, $7 to $9 per gallon, America could have been making intelligent free-market based decisions right along. There would be central cities, mass transit, structured delivery systems, renewable energy. Instead we are now a country facing radical detox, and we have a very vocal, very empowered group of billionaires (oil-men) and multi-millionaires (GOP), telling us to keep using those drugs because going straight will be too difficult and too scary. Just like any pusher; He wins, you lose. And the longer its takes, the more you lose.

[ecopassionate]

09:50 AM on 07/25/2010

The oil spill was, as pointed out, never directly linked to our gluttony for oil. But that is because so many people still refuse to see our addiction to oil as a major problem, we have gotten used to $3.00 + gasoline with hardly a measurable response in consumption. When was the last time someone SWEPT up grass clippings or raked leaves? Now everyone takes out the leaf blower...pull that little cord and...oh, hell you guys get the idea. One thing is true...cannot be denied...if we all managed our appetites for energy, raked leaves, used compact flourescents, weatherstripped, insulated better, walked or rode a bike to the post office, ate local produce, turned the termostat up (or down) a few degrees we could make an impact...and we don't have to vote for anyone to make that possible...yet we as a whole do not do these things.

[Dr Juan]

09:03 AM on 07/25/2010

Cap and trade would just be more wall street types wheeling and dealing with an illusion.
The only real impact would be on US economy. China is now the worlds biggest and most inefficient oil user and they will not change.
Why should we be utipians enacting very dammaging measures when the evidence is so flim-flam connecting CO2 with global temperature change? Technically, methane gas and water vapor have vastly more impact on insulating the earth.
Any environmentallist can actually feel the day to day impact of changes in cloud cover. Why don't they battle to pass legislation against clouds!? Idiots all!