Setting a target for reducing fossil-fuel dependence without micromanaging how it is met makes sense, though I would like to see energy producers and consumers receive credit for conservation (HCN, 4/16/12, “Solar + wind + nuclear + natural gas = clean energy?”). Nevertheless, passage of Sen. Bingaman’s bill would represent progress, and I would hate to see environmentalists oppose it. As the article hints, the bill is doomed: Superstitious climate-change deniers and politicians in the pockets of the fossil-fuel industry will torpedo it. This will be possible because our political system permits a minority of senators representing as little as 15 percent of the U.S. population to veto whatever legislation they please.
Ken Wilson
Louisville, Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Pragmatism is doomed.
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