This one would require the EPA to act if the National Academy of Sciences learns that we have not taken sufficient action to avoid the worst effects of global warming. It’s a so-called “look back” amendment.
Lieberman … opposes it! His own amendment package calls for periodic NAS reports, directs the EPA to review those reports and recommend changes to America’s Climate Security Act to the Congress. That’s an important difference. There’s pros and cons to each. Under a good EPA administrator, the Sanders’ amendment would be extremely important. Under an EPA administrator like the current one, it would mean four years without look backs. Lieberman’s amendment defers to Congress, which as we all know doesn’t always get things done super fast.
Lautenberg has proposed changing this amendment in a way that would allow Congress to override EPA recommendations, and Sanders has agreed to withdraw the amendment until it can be considered in the full committee.
