McCain rejected a proposal to include a safety valve in the 2003 Climate Stewardship Act he sponsored with Lieberman. A year later, however, the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan coalition of industry, environmental, and political representatives, recommended that one be added to any cap-and-trade scheme in order to make it politically feasible (i.e. acceptable to industry and consumers). Apparently heeding that advice, Bingaman did exactly that when he pitched his draft legislation to Republican senators, including Specter, in 2005. Since then, debate has raged, pitting environmentalists, who think safety valves cripple climate legislation, against industry, which thinks having the failsafe is the only way to make cap-and-trade work.

It’s unclear what Obama and Clinton think. Yesterday, Grist’s David Roberts had an interesting Q&A with Jason Grumet, a climate and energy adviser to the Obama campaign who is also executive director of the National Commission on Energy Policy, which authored the 2004 report promoting the safety valve. Roberts notes as much in his introduction, but then, somehow, the safety valve doesn’t come up in the ensuing conversation. The interview is still well worth a read, but it’s too bad that contentious, but central element of the cap-and-trade legislation was once more overlooked, especially given the intense national interest in the gas-tax holiday.

Last month, Grumet sat on a panel in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Society of Environmental Journalists, with representatives from the Clinton and McCain camps to “debate” the candidates’ green credentials. According to Darren Samuelsohn, who authored ClimateWire’s notable piece on the safety valve and attended the event, the subject of a mechanism to check runaway emissions prices did not come up. “It’s not been a factor in the presidential race,” Samuelsohn wrote in an e-mail. “Maybe when we get to the general, but it’s down in the weeds for the candidates for sure.”

Perhaps that would be different now, in the wake of the gas-tax debate-a reporter could very reasonably stand up and ask Clinton (assuming she stays in the race), “You support pricing mechanisms to bring down the cost of gas; would you support them to bring down the cost electricity?” And beyond that, what’s better-the simple, $12 safety valve ingrained in the Bingaman-Specter bill, or the Federal Reserve-like oversight board described in Lieberman-Warner? And what about other important facets of cap-and-trade: to what extent should credits be auctioned rather than allotted; should initial allotments to companies be based on their current emissions or the amount of electricity they produce; and how will the system play out in regulated versus unregulated electricity markets? Sooner or later we will have to know where the candidates stand.

Correction: An earlier version of this story mistakenly stated that Obama, Clinton and McCain all support the Lieberman-Warner climate bill. In fact, they all support some form of cap-and-trade legislation and only Clinton has specifically backed the Lieberman-Warner bill.

• 1
• 2