Apparently, John Dingell is not sitting idly by as Nancy Pelosi sticks a thumb in his eye on global warming.
An editorial in the NYT mentions that he has sent out a “quiet little letter to the members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce … he said he would put climate change at the top of the committee agenda this year and, for good measure, would invite Al Gore … to testify first.”
The editorial paints Dingell as less of an “obstruction” than others have:
Hardly a believer, in other words, but plainly open to persuasion. Which is why it’s essential for Mr. Gore and others to become part of the conversation Mr. Dingell has invited. In the end, what is most likely to move him forward is not pressure from Ms. Pelosi or anyone else but appeals to his well-documented sense of environmental stewardship.
Dingell seems to piss environmentalists off principally for his resistance to raising fuel standards, so I was intrigued to read of him talking more about global warming at the same time as Our Illustrious Leader may be making an increase in fuel standards part of his SOTU speech tommorow.
- Thoughts on how Dingell is positioning himself?
- Ideas on what’s going to be the focus of a Gore meeting with Dingell?
- Bets on how lame Bush’s fuel efficiency increase will actually be?
