Internal Rifts Cloud Democrats' Opportunity on Warming

Rep. John D. Dingell, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, had expected to lead the debate over global warming -- until House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formed a new panel. (By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)

"Superfund isn't being properly administered," he continued. "We have safe drinking water . . . what else?" His chief of staff, former auto lobbyist Dennis Fitzgibbons, mentions telecommunications, and Dingell is back to his list: Net neutrality. Universal service. "We have to address high-definition television, and a similar issue with regard to radio . . . "

Pelosi and her allies may think CO2 is more important than HDTV, but Dingell will not be rushed. He mentions that the politics of carbon are "substantially similar, if not identical" to the politics of the Clean Air Act, which required a decade of debate before it was amended in 1990 to deal with acid rain. He does not mention that his own opposition was the main obstacle to action, or that environmentalists -- who had loved his work on the Endangered Species Act and other wildlife protections -- dubbed him "Tailpipe Johnny" during the acid-rain debate.

Dingell is an older bull now; at 80, he sometimes walks with a cane, and his hearing aid doesn't seem to work as well as it once did. But he is still a formidable figure on the Hill, and he grumbles that it takes time to build consensus.

"I could bring up a bill like that," he said with a snap of his fingers. "It would take about a week, and I could get it on the floor a week or so after that, and I can give you the absolute certainty that it will not become law. I'm not sure you want that, do you?"

But Pelosi draws her power from the Inslees of the caucus, and they believe that the time for deliberation has passed. Inslee is careful to pay homage to Dingell, "one of the most brilliant people I've ever met in public policy, but he rejects the chairman's comparison of global warming to acid rain."

"The challenge we're facing is a hundredfold more critical," Inslee said. "We need to address this on an emergency basis." And he believes that Pelosi, with support from green manufacturers and green evangelicals as well as the usual green groups, will break the logjam on Capitol Hill -- with or without Dingell's help.

"She is willing to make a few omelets, which is to say, break a few eggs," Inslee said.

A Question of Tactics

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In the old Congress, with J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) as speaker of the House, the "majority of the majority" ruled. Policies were hashed out inside the GOP caucus, which was dominated by conservatives; Hastert's team then pressured the entire caucus to back them. The result was a steady tack to the right -- and eventually, electoral disaster, especially for GOP moderates.

Pelosi has promised a more open and bipartisan process and has said she will not drag her caucus to the left. But global warming could be a telling test. Inslee's support for fast and aggressive legislation to reduce emissions is probably supported by a majority of House Democrats -- but not a majority of Congress.

On the other hand, when Dingell and Boucher talk about building consensus around a moderate bipartisan approach that respects the concerns of industry, the Earth-on-fire crowd suspects a do-nothing approach. The top Republican on Dingell's committee, Rep. Joe L. Barton (Tex.), has done more to block climate legislation than any other House member, with the possible exception of the top Republican on Boucher's subcommittee, Hastert.

"Industry is an important part of the equation," Boucher said.

But there are options beyond Inslee's strong-and-fast and Dingell's modest-and-slow.