No Time to Train the New Guy
It feels like the last week of term, the teachers are grumpy, the kids are grumpy, we race to get through the curriculum and ultimately everybody is just relieved to leave on Friday. I am no exception as I'm getting on a plane and heading to Spain with my son to celebrate the completion of his law degree and taking the bar exam. Like millions of other people we are going to be sitting in temperatures that are statistically impossible without human intervention and it's so frustrating that climate change is no longer a theoretical risk but really here.
As I prepare this newsletter I have the live feed on for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing to examine opportunities for Congress to reform the process for permitting electric transmission lines, pipelines, and energy production on federal lands. It's become obvious to me, and you no doubt, that I have become more interested in permitting at the expense of other subjects. These things suck you in, you find people that are doing great work, you think you have identified critical problems that need solving, you talk with members who are actually working on it and ultimately you spend a vast amount of time thinking about it and trying to support it.
The problem is, it's just one issue, and the members, their staff and the thousands of lobbyists that work around this place have hundreds of other issues to deal with. The narrative that members of Congress don't work hard is not born out by my experience. On the contrary they work incredibly hard. How much of this is efficient is somewhat open to question but it takes a lot of stamina to be a member of Congress. We who are not legislators could do better at making them more efficient. Policy advocacy runs the risk of selfishness because it does not always take into account the political reality, the related issues that simply cannot be divorced from the one we advocate for and is often loaded with additional requirements that have nothing to do with climate. We expect grand solutions from a process that is incremental and discrete.
Watching the witnesses describe the world they live in really brings home how the legislative process is just a compromise of competing interests looking for a solution to a problem that is often hard to define, sitting atop 100 years of existing law and regulations, never mind the politics of it. That it works at all is inspiring.
If you were to do nothing else over the summer I would encourage those less familiar with the process to carve out the time and listen to the whole hearing. Ask yourself, if you could have prepared as well as some of these members who will leave this room and often run to fundraising lunch, afternoon votes and probably two fundraising dinners that evening. BCA is ultimately a bipartisan fundraising entity in the name of climate and this work is vital because it validates their behavior and saves them a huge amount of time which means more time to do the job.
On the Slate
Amongst the many meetings we had this week was a conversation with Rep. Marionette Miller-Meeks R (IA-2) covering permitting, AI, and her district. It's a good way to end this session as she is truly an irreplaceable Congresswoman. It's taken a couple of cycles to get on the Energy and Commerce Committee, she is Vice Chair of the Conservative Climate Caucus, vocal about the need for sensible permit reform and talks about her State as a net exporter of clean wind energy. She is an absolute net positive for the climate and if she were to be replaced, regardless of who it was or which party they represent, they would be starting from scratch with limited knowledge, no relationships and no committee seat. As one of today’s witnesses said, consistency of staffing is a major problem and Congress is no different. From the climate’s perspective, we simply don’t have time to train the new guy.
Positive Notes
Regardless of where you stand on nuclear, whatever decisions are made about our nuclear future will need more community participation. Rep. Mike Levin and his utterly outstanding chief of Staff Jonathan Gilbert have not shrunk from the task and have reintroduced legislation to improve public engagement with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. This topic is like grabbing the third rail and we all owe him and his team a debt for jumping in. Have a read around the issue and maybe call the office and say well done Congressman…
As always, I encourage you to share this with anyone who may be interested in supporting our work or our members, and of course, feel free to reach out to me anytime.
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