New Republic - No Rush On Global Warming - Legislation Facing Likely Bush Veto

[hatrack]

Not long after George W. Bush proudly declared last year that he had no intention of watching Al Gore's “An Inconvenient Truth,” he told reporters that there was a "fundamental debate" about whether global warming was "manmade or natural." It was an ignorant statement utterly at odds with the scientific consensus. Recently, however, he tried to walk it back. "Beginning in June 2001," read a White House letter released last month, "President Bush has consistently acknowledged climate change is occurring and humans are contributing to the problem." (A second letter claiming that the White House consistently acknowledged that Saddam Hussein had no WMD is said to be forthcoming.)

Revisionism aside, it's nice to see the administration swear off pointless skepticism about the science of global warming. Indeed, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change prepares to release its latest report, declaring with 90 percent certainty that manmade greenhouse gases are heating the planet, the debate over global warming has shifted. Erstwhile skeptics are scattering for cover. Businesses are lining up in support of a mandatory cap on carbon emissions. Democrats have declared the issue a top priority.

It's not a moment too soon. To stave off melting ice sheets, rising sea levels, and other potentially calamitous effects of large-scale climate change, we should have started working to stabilize carbon-dioxide levels in the atmosphere years ago. But, while there are unimpeachable policy grounds for rushing to action, the political logic of hastily moving forward is less convincing. Public alarm over global warming is just beginning to build. And the president, despite his shift in rhetoric, still opposes mandatory reductions in emissions. If Democrats in Congress act tomorrow and produce a bill that can pass muster with the White House, they will end up with an inadequate half-measure that could deflate the growing pressure to act meaningfully.

Consider the current raft of climate-change legislation. The only piece that has a chance of surviving a GOP filibuster and Bush veto is one sponsored by New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman. His bill would implement a cap-and-trade regime, setting a national limit on carbon emissions and allowing companies to buy and sell pollution credits — a system that worked with acid-rain legislation in the 1990s. But Bingaman's proposal includes "safety valves" that give companies an out, and it doesn't reduce emissions quickly enough. Unfortunately, stronger bills — such as one sponsored by John McCain, Joe Lieberman, and Barack Obama — stand almost no chance, even with the current Democratic majority. (Last time around, that bill netted only 38 votes.)

EDIT

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/02/opinion/main2531457.shtml

[phantom power]

1. Political realities forbid them from acting.

I hope that comforts them 20 years from now.