When President Obama was elected, one on his top priorities was to tackle global warming head on. After years of pro-polluting policies under the Bush administration and a Republican Congress, it seemed like our country was finally ready to face the fact that continuing on the oil dependent, over consuming path we have chosen is not only bad for our enviornment but also for our long term economy and national security. After early progress toward a carbon cap and trade bill, the legislation has come to a halt. So why, despite all the perceived benefits and public support, are we still far from real change?

Any new law has economic winners and losers. The automobile industry, utility companies with coal and gas plants, and the oil and gas industry all are obvious potential losers. Unfortunately, there are many more parts of the economy that are insidiously tied to cheap fossil fuels including industrial agriculture, land development, most of the construction industry, and big box retail like Walmart. Even the now dying newspaper industry staked its growth in the past on growing the local population as quickly as possible to thus grow readership. (Ever wonder why the local papers take such a regularly pro-development stance?)

This dependence on cheap fossil fuels even penetrates the banking industry as seen in this ad recently posted by BikePortland.

The ad shows a child on a bike looking up to an adult (possibly his father or maybe his banker?) with the phrase “From two wheels to four wheels — Pave the way for your young driver with an OnPoint auto loan.” To the banking industry all of our children are just consumers riding two wheeled toys and biding their time until they can buy (with the help of a bank loan) the most expensive, ever-depreciating product they’ll ever buy in their life. In fact looking at the ad again, you could interpret the man as a dealer to the child, not drugs but a product that will make the child just as dependent. The idea that you would do any different is foreign to much of our country. Banks are just one more link the the chain of an economy that needs us to pollute and consume to make money.

The Republicans have taken advantage of the recent economic downturn to call the carbon cap and trade legislation a “job killer bill.” In the ultimate show of short sighted selfishness, they want to kill the supposed job killer bill ignoring that by doing so we are hastening the real killing that climate change is doing (in the form of floods, hurricanes, drought, new disease, etc.)

Avoiding the further decline of our country and ensuring catastrophes will mean real changes that will not always be comfortable to those used to living high on the hog, but the long term outlook will be better. True, some parts of the economy will be hurt, but other parts will thrive. We no longer have a thriving wagon wheel industry or whale fat oil industry. The loss of these antiquated industries did mean short term pain for those employed, but they hardly meant the Armageddon of our economy and neither will carbon cap and trade or other attempts to rein in emissions. Smart people will continue to find ways to make money, just in a less polluting, less wasteful way. You can take that to the bank.