Lindsey Graham: Greener than Obama?
“Obama now not as green as Lindsey Graham.”
That little gem from Talking Points Memo’s Brian Beutler summed up our topsy-turvy world today. He was responding to a speech in which the South Carolina Republican senator said President Obama was unwise to propose an energy bill without putting a price on carbon.
Graham accomplished a seemingly impossible feat (for a Republican) in his speech at the “Business Advocacy Day for Jobs, Climate & New Energy Leadership” in Washington D.C.: he outflanked Obama from the LEFT.Here’s an excerpt (the whole speech is posted at Grist.org.)
I don’t think you’ll ever have energy independence the way I want it until you start dealing with carbon pollution and pricing carbon. The two are connected in my view—very much connected. The money to be made in solving the carbon pollution problem can only happen when you price carbon in my view.
He added that he won’t get behind “some half-assed energy bill.”
Graham also showed his mastery of the green jobs message, conjuring up the determination of China to win the cleantech race and saying,
It is not about polar bears to me, it’s about jobs. I like the polar bears as much as anyone else but I want to create jobs.
With his speech today, Graham hasn’t just taken up the mantle from John McCain as the best hope for cooperation from the Republicans. He has actually become the most effective advocate – Democrat or Republican – in the senate for curbing carbon emissions.
His work with sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., hasn’t brought forth a tangible bill yet, but he’s doing his best to keep the issue alive while Obama seems to be resigning.