On climate change, Democrats must fight harder and smarter: Sen. Bennet

The world is gathered in Bonn, Germany this week to review progress under the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Every nation has signed the agreement except one, the United States. We used to lead the world against climate change; now we debate whether it is even real.

How did this happen?

In short, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission gave a handful of ultra-rich individuals the power to warp the politics around climate change. For Republicans, simply uttering the phrase now means millions in Super PAC attack ads. For Democrats, the flood of money has helped portray us as job killers fundamentally out of touch with most Americans.

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At times, we play into this caricature. Our passion to address climate change often leads us to positions that alienate potential allies. Our donors draw red lines for candidates that fail to account for economic realities beyond the coasts. All the while, the impasse persists.

To move forward, we need a more inclusive and thoughtful conversation. We should recognize that many communities now rely on energy production for their economic lifeblood. It is not enough to call for less coal or oil without having meaningful work to replace lost jobs. For someone who earned $80,000 in the energy sector, working in fast food or attending a failed job training program offers little solace. Pretending otherwise leads many Americans to conclude that Democrats don’t understand their challenges, or even worse, that we don’t care. 

Similarly, when Democrats oppose natural gas, we fail to appreciate both its importance to small town economies and its pivotal role in reducing coal production. The transition to clean energy will not happen overnight. Saying no to responsible production of natural gas — which emits half the carbon of the dirtiest coal and is the cleanest fossil fuel — surrenders progress for purity.

We also need to connect climate change to everyday lives. Concern about melting ice caps and endangered species is justified, but it has little resonance beyond our cities and coasts. On the other hand, every farmer and rancher in Colorado understands that persistent droughts and wildfires directly threaten their business and way of life. Likewise, many in Colorado know that warming temperatures endanger our skiing, fly fishing and outdoor recreation.

If we ignore these economic realities in our climate debate, we will struggle to break the gridlock in Washington.

Consider what happened in 2015. That year, President Obama announced the Clean Power Plan to slash America’s carbon emissions to 32% below 2005 levels by 2030. Instead of rallying behind this effort, many activists made the Keystone Pipeline their cause. According to data from the Environmental Protection Agency, stopping the pipeline would have reduced our emissions by less than 1%. When Democrats opposed the pipeline, union workers across Colorado saw it as a direct rebuke. For them, pipefitting had become a source of steady work after factories had long shuttered and left.

Imagine if, instead of opposing the Keystone Pipeline, we had included it within a bipartisan deal to secure the Clean Power Plan or other meaningful steps to reduce our carbon emissions.

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Unfortunately, we now find ourselves with Donald Trump as president, the Clean Power Plan canceled, and the Keystone Pipeline greenlighted. We are back to square one.

The threat of climate change is grave and growing. The overwhelming scientific consensus calls on us to act. Though most Republicans have cynically withdrawn from this debate, Democrats still have to win it. To break the impasse, we have to learn from our mistakes. That means reaching the small towns, farmers, ranchers and workers who see the dangers of climate change, but who have tuned out. It means choosing arguments that broaden our coalition instead of shrink it.

In Washington, it can be easy to mistake bold words with bold actions. In reality, one rarely leads to the other. Real solutions come from acknowledging different interests, agreeing on hard truths, and building a durable consensus to move forward.

What’s the point of being a progressive if we can’t make progress?

Michael Bennet is a Democratic senator from Colorado. Follow him on Twitter: @SenBennetCO