Deconstructing Senator Inhofe's Message for Bali

Senator James Inhofe published a special 1065-word message in Roll Call (sub req'd) on Monday to coincide with the start of the climate meetings in Bali and as a send-off gift to embattled Senator Larry Craig, who is attending the meetings as Inhofe's rep. As a prime focal point of inaction on climate, Inhofe's words and rhetorical strategies are worth some closer scrutiny. It's the commemorative memo that telegraphs the messages opponents of climate action will be using for the foreseeable future.

The primary strategy is fear-mongering -- over bigger government, higher prices, and higher taxes -- which can be awfully effective. But there's also this: challenging the validity of climate science is off the table, and Inhofe even makes a tacit admission that there is such a thing as a "climate benefit."

But let's start with the first paragraph, whose key operative phrases I've bolded:

Just in time for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has scheduled a business meeting to consider legislation that seeks to impose mandatory global warming "solutions" on the American people. The global warming cap-and-trade bill (S. 2191) introduced by Sens. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) seeks to regulate carbon dioxide by creating a whole new federal bureaucracy. In moving the bill out of committee, supporters of the bill are anxious for a symbolic "victory" just in time for their U.N. trip to Bali.

Translation: In a rush to please the United Nations -- that bastion of dysfunction and anti-Americanism -- climate activists are trying to bloat the size of government and force unwanted requirements upon freedom-loving Americans.

It continues:

There is a better way for Congress to legislate. The American people deserve an open and honest debate on the merits of any proposed climate change legislation, especially considering that mandatory carbon cap-and-trade legislation will impose the largest tax increase ever in the US without any measurable climate benefits.

Translation: If you don't watch out, you are going to get hit with the mother of all tax increases disguised by a closed and dishonest process as something else -- called cap-and-trade.

But.

There it is, the phrase "measurable climate benefits." Sure, Inhofe would argue that there is no such thing, but the fact is, he can't talk about the issues any more without adopting the language of the solutions frame. A small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

The first and last sentences of next paragraph aimed at pocketbook issues are unapologetic. It assumes higher prices. It assumes economic damage. If you're not paying critical attention, you'll get swept along along for a frightening ride:

The consequences of higher fuel bills for poor Americans can be devastating.........Not knowing the extent of the economic damage resulting from this bill before we vote would be irresponsible.

No translation needed there. He continues along this vein of economic ruin, even claiming that the bill will result in $4 trillion to $6 trillion in "welfare costs" over the next 40 years. Then:

The American Council for Capital Formation's analysis on Nov. 8 found the bill will lead to "higher energy prices, lost jobs and reduced (gross domestic product.)

I like the way he uses dates. They sound recent and authoritative, don't they. By the way, here's what SourceWatch tells us about the American Council for Capital Formation, whose name alone is awfully hard to argue with:

ACCF has a conservative perspective of economic policy and favors policies that favor big business. ACCF's Officers and Board of Directors
included former high-ranking politicians in the U.S. government along
with a who's-who in big business, including individuals from the American Petroleum Institute, Principal Financial Group, American Chemistry Council, American Farm Bureau Federation, American Business Conference, American Forest & Paper Association, Edison Electric Institute, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and other pro-industry trade associations and corporations. Individuals from the American Enterprise Institute, and the Hoover Institution are members of ACCF's Board of Scholars.

The Senator from Oklahoma then invokes the AFL-CIO and the American Chamber of Commerce, goes on a riff in favor of nuclear power, and then comes to this:

Failure of Cap-and-Trade

Cap-and-trade policies have been tried in Europe and they have been an utter disaster. European emissions continue to climb while our current policies have resulted in emissions tailing off in the United States.

Wow. In the run-up to Bali, we saw how President Bush tried to falsely claim credit for emissions reductions. More of the same here, though a much bolder gambit: The Senator is claiming that US policies are working better than the EU's. Talk about misinformation. Remember the Euro is trouncing the dollar in value, Sarkozy is signing mega energy deals with China, and the US seems headed for a recession. Not to mention the fact that the US has no climate and energy policy!

Inhofe then pulls out the roadblock that's been the no-action sound-bite since the President turned his back on Kyoto.

...any climate action must neither harm our economy nor fail to include developing countries. Lieberman-Warner does not pass that test

and then he finishes with a paragraph that conjures fear of economic doom six ways to Sunday:

To put it bluntly: Senators are going to be asking the American people to pay more for home energy and pay higher prices at the gas pump for no climate benefit. This bill will simply result in real economic pain, for no climate gain. It appears the realities of global warming "solutions" are finally being exposed across the political spectrum. This bill will burden American families with additional energy costs and significantly harm the US economy.

There you have it, the playbook for inaction, the backdrop being created for the special interests that want to continue with business as usual. Don't underestimate how effective these messages can be. It takes considerable effort to unpack their oversimplifications -- this post just scratches the surface, really -- and by then the sound bite is over.

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