Climate Politics

McCain says Reid chose ‘to put politics above policy’

McCain's statement on Lieberman-Warner said this:

... it appears that for now, the Senate, at the direction of the Majority Leader, will choose to put politics above policy, and Congress will fail to act yet again on this critical issue.

You cannot be serious! The people who put politics above policy were McCain's fellow conservatives, who

• Forced 30 hours of pointless debate
• Forced a 9-hour reading of the bill
• Demagogued the gasoline and energy price issue over and over again
• Denied the reality of climate science
• Voted to block the bill from moving forward

That's why Congress failed to act. And, of course, Bush said he would veto the bill anyway. Where or when did the straight talk express derail?

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Post-post mortem on Boxer-Lieberman-Warner debate

OK, so the long-dead B-L-W bill got propped up and dragged around for a few days. (Tagline: B-L-W may be dead, but it's the life of the party!) But I think the debate was quite useful for two reasons:

1. The opponents of (even modest) action played and overplayed their cards. Now we know that the health and well-being of future generations is of no interest in them. Now we know what their primary arguments will be. This is the opportunity for progressives and moderates and hopefully President Obama to design a better messaging strategy -- and to get pro cap-and-trade businesses to weigh in.
2. The many flaws in the bill (other than the fact it wouldn't actually save the climate) were exposed: not enough money returned to taxpayers, too much money given away to too many groups, too complicated, your flaw here -- I'd very much like to hear your ideas for how the bill could be simplified and improved.

I will be offering my recommendations for what a better bill would look like later this month. Clearly, the bill should be designed to achieve more reductions and to be easier to explain and defend.

After all, the original Weekend at Bernie's was kind of fun and made money. But did anybody actually see (and enjoy) Weekend at Bernie's 2? We don't want a lame remake next year.

McCain says he hearts Everglades, despite opposing bill with restoration funding

Sen. John McCain swung through Florida last week, taking time for a boat tour of the Everglades on Friday. The Obama campaign promptly criticized McCain for his opposition last year to a water bill that included major funding for Everglades restoration. McCain said he would have supported a stand-alone Everglades bill, but the broader water […]

Bushism will endure

“There has occasionally been voiced the misimpression that a future administration will take a significantly different attitude towards climate than this administration.” — deputy national security adviser Dan Price

Lieberman-Warner’s failure this year underdetermines next year’s efforts

I suppose as an enviro-blogger I’m supposed to have something insightful to say about the death of the Lieberman-Warner bill. Yet I find myself strangely apathetic. So much buildup, so much debate, and then … hell, it was just another Republican filibuster. Why did I waste all those brain cells in the first place? It’s […]

Top Senate recipients of fossil-fuel money behind climate-bill stall tactics

The good folks over at Muckety.com (maybe we’re long-lost cousins …) put together an awesome interactive map detailing the connections between the fossil-fuel industries and some of the folks behind the death of climate legislation in the Senate this week. Check it out: Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the Senate’s leading climate-change denier, is also a […]

Is NYT’s Revkin pushing unjustified ‘balance’ in the Senate climate debate coverage?

I like and respect Andy Revkin a great deal. He is one of the best reporters on climate and certainly the most prolific climate journalist now that he has his Dot Earth blog. But I must take exception to his recent posting, "Climate Debate: Democracy In Action?"

You would never know from his post that one side in the debate was desperately trying to save future generations from catastrophic warming and the other side was simply doing shameless political posturing. Here is how it opens:

Budget resolution includes funds to clean up nuclear sites

Apparently the Senate actually accomplished something this week in the environmental realm: the 2009 federal budget resolution that passed 48-45 on Wednesday included $500 million for a Department of Energy environmental management program to clean up Hanford and other nuclear sites across the country. Hanford is the decommissioned nuclear-weapons complex along the Columbia River in […]

Republicans try to stoke Dem discord on climate legislation in the House

Amidst the chaos in the Senate over climate legislation, Rep. Ed Markey introduced his climate legislation in the House on Thursday. House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio), hoping to take advantage of apparent disarray within the Democratic Party, has dared Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to push Markey’s bill to the floor. He wrote a letter […]

Climate Security Act dies, failing to muster enough votes to move forward

The Senate held a cloture vote this morning to bring to a close debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, a vote that would have allowed the amendment process to begin. After four days of conversation and delays, the bill died, failing to reach the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture by a vote of […]