Rep. John Dingell (D-MI-15) is the longest-serving member of Congress and currently Chair of House Energy and Commerce. Although Senate action on climate has been limited to passing S.2191 out of the Environment and Public Works committee, House action has been even more limited due in no small part of Dingell’s apparent lack of desire to see carbon regulation on the books (some would say because he represents Detroit). However, despite being what most consider a roadblock to climate regulation, Dingell’s committee released a 25-page white paper on Feb 25th that is well worth reading and gives deep details on policy considerations of a regulatory market (see also). Curiously, the Executive Summary of the white paper includes this passage:
Addressing climate change will require employing a variety of tools. The primary tool at the Federal level will be a national, economy-wide cap-and-trade program that reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 60 to 80 percent by 2050.
As has become somewhat commonplace, there are mixed signals here from Rep. Dingell as he has been considered an opponent of carbon regulation (his public statements on the topic have not been terribly nuanced). At the same time, a section of his website is devoted to carbon tax legislation, and other statements over the past year have him simultaneously supporting and opposing climate regulation. So at this point we have numerous statements from Rep. Dingell that thinly veil opposition to climate regulations, a stated position from him seeking a carbon tax regime, and now a new white paper that both states that there will be a cap-and-trade regime, and calls for Federal preempting of state climate laws.
Our suspicion is that Rep. Dingell has not found within any major changes in heart about carbon regulation, and will seek out poison pills and delaying tactics wherever he can find them. He is genuinely opposed to climate legislation, but as a prominent Democratic member of Congress and Chair of a key House committee is bearing a mountain of pressure to move forward on climate.
