As the clock to Copenhagen reaches the 11th hour, many in Washington are going to be boarding planes in the next few days to attend the climate conference that officially starts on Monday. President Obama is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday, December 9th and he is expected to announce an emissions reduction target of 17 percent from 2005 levels for the U.S. At the start of the year, hopes were high that the United States would have legislation signed into law and in the hands of the U.S. delegation as they boarded their flights. Instead, the House has passed their legislation and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has passed theirs. Whether this is enough for the international community remains to be seen. Regardless, in terms of legislative initiatives, Senators Kerry and Graham continue to work on their climate bill and any legislative debate on the issue in the Senate will happen sometime next year.

As with politics, it seems the status quo is being shaken in the automotive industry with the firing this week of GM’s CEO. While Mr. Henderson was only CEO for 6 months, his 25-year tenure with GM seems to have been a part of his downfall. The Board wanted to see change and it doesn’t seem they thought someone raised in the culture of GM could do it. In terms of stability, though, at a time when the U.S. auto industry is still in trouble, six months is a short time to decide to rock the boat when the boat was just coming out completely battered from weathering a category 5 hurricane on the open seas. Americans are in the mood for change but in today’s economic times, they are also desperate for stability.

Finally, the dialogue on electrification continues. A few weeks ago, two significant events occurred almost simultaneously: the Electrification Coalition was launched and with it the release of their Electrification Roadmap and an announcement of a U.S.-China Electric Vehicles Initiative, in which both countries agreed to put millions of electric vehicles on the road in the upcoming years. Just yesterday, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA) hosted a briefing in the House on “how the U.S. is electrifying the transportation sector and why it is essential to achieve our national goals for oil independence, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and restoring U.S. competitiveness through green technologies.” Several members of the Electrification Coalition were panelists for the briefing, and the Coalition is working with members to have legislation ready to be introduced in the early part of January to implement their Roadmap. In the vacuum that could result from the end of talks in Copenhagen and possibly no finalized climate bill, legislation mapping out a path to electrification would achieve many of the same goals as climate legislation. This could possibly be the least complicated answer to the cry for change in our country while still providing the stability needed to move solidly forward.

Tags: climate, Electrification, Legislation

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