White House says it is "time to act" on climate bil

[Mass]

Interesting article about the climate bill. Obviously, this does not mean a bill will be easy to push in the Senate and that the odds are considerably higher they were last week, but it is good to see that the White House is making some efforts.

http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2262729/white-house-act-climate-bill

The White House waded into the debate surrounding how the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will affect the chances of passing US climate change legislation this year, arguing that the environmental crisis highlighted the need for a rapid shift towards low carbon forms of energy.

The intervention came as Democrat Senator John Kerry and independent Senator Joe Lieberman confirmed that they would formally unveil a draft version of the climate bill on Wednesday, despite the fact that their erstwhile colleague, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, said that he wanted to see the bill delayed until the oil spill in the Gulf was tackled.

Senator Graham controversially withdrew his support for the bill late last month over a perceived attempt by Democrats to push the bill down the political agenda. The move scuppered initial plans to launch the draft bill and, despite having said that he still supports the bill in principle, Senator Graham said on Thursday that the oil spill meant that the Senators behind the bill should " pause the process and reassess where we stand".

Senator Graham's support for the bill is widely seen as crucial to the Democrats' chances of winning over the handful of moderate Republican Senators whose support they require to pass the bill.
However, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Friday that the administration supported moving forward with the bill, arguing that the oil spill and ensuing environment catastrophe underlines the need for the shift towards cleaner forms of energy enabled by the legislation.

"I think the president would believe that now more than ever is the time to act," he said.

[karynnj]

1. It will be interesting to see

It is hard to believe that more than half the country still supports offshore drilling. I wonder though if they will be able to cut it back - ruling out the deep wells like this one, because they clearly do not have procedures to handle the problems. That plus one provision that a few articles spoke of - giving states a veto out to 75 miles might be enough to keep both sides. I also wonder what the higher insurance rates - that have to result from this for new wells might by itself limit any new drilling.