The veneer is cracking. In more and more corporate and industry settings, we have moved past the incontrovertible regarding fossil fuels and climate change. This morning, Steve Inskeep of NPR interviewed Jeff Holmstead, partner at Bracewell LLP, who represented the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity in litigation regarding the Clean Power Plan. At one time Mr. Holmstead was a deputy administrator in the EPA under President George W. Bush. He may have grown up in Boulder, CO, but he is clearly not a champion of liberal doctrine on industry and climate.
It is profound if we can collectively move beyond debating causality and consequences and discuss the mechanisms of commerce and law to address the environmental and societal risks. If we can pit solutions based on markets against solutions based on regulation rather than arguing the climate change premise, there is hope because we are all at least acknowledging and then talking about solving the same problem.
Inskeep: “Just to be clear and get this on the record, because the President has, at different times, called climate change a Chinese hoax — does your industry group accept the science that climate change is real, significantly caused by people… dangerous enough to respond to?”
Holmstead: “Yes. I think that most everybody in the industry does accept that fact and the real question is what’s the best way to go about resolving it. And that’s really what this proposal yesterday is all about.”
The full interview can be heard here: