Obama Admin Official Says Climate Bill Will Not Pass in 2009

Posted by Steven Zweig on October 7, 2009 at 1:34 pm

Carol Browner, Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy. (image: businessweek.com)

As was reported by guardian.co.uk on Sunday, Obama administration spokesperson Carol Browner says that a climate bill is “not going to happen” this year.

Browner, President Obama’s main energy advisor, had this to say: “I think we would  all agree the likelihood that you’d have a [climate] bill signed by the president on comprehensive energy by the time we go [to Copenhagen] in December is not likely.”

An international meeting on climate change convenes in Copenhagen in December. The U.S. is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. It’s also the world’s richest and most powerful nation; and it was a notable holdout on the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The United States’ leadership is seen as critical for an international climate change pact. If the U.S. goes to Copenhagen without climate change legislation, knowledgeable observers, including the State Department’s climate change envoy, see greatly diminished prospects for coming to a meaningful agreement.

Browner’s remarks undercut comments by leading Democratic lawmakers, who are pressing hard to pass the climate change bill. A day before her comments, former presidential candidate Senator John Kerry, one of the bill’s sponsors, said that he was confident the bill would narrowly pass in the Senate. By saying that she sees essentially no chance of passing a bill this year, Browner contradicted congressional ally Kerry, risked stealing what momentum the bill has, and also suggested that the Obama Administration is not going to commit significant political capital to the fight.

If her comments reflect an administration decision to not strongly support the bill, her prediction will almost certainly come to pass—most political commentators believe Presidential leadership is vital to the bill’s success.