Obama just said he is going to fight for the climate bill!!!!

[beachmom]

John Kerry just tweeted:

Legislator in Chief! Pres Obama pledges “to find the votes” for comprehensive climate/energy - we can pass this.

Here is the line from Pres. Obama from a speech in Pittsburgh this afternoon via RL_Miller:

"I will find votes" for climate bill -- even bigger applause line in Obama speech!

Yes!!!!

[karynnj]

1. That is fantastic!

[Mass]

2. Great news. Even more surprising, Matt Viser reports it.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2010/06/obama_pushes_ke.html

Obama pushes Kerry's climate billPM
By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON – In an indication that Democrats could renew their push for climate change legislation this year, President Obama this afternoon said he would attempt to round up votes for legislation filed by Senator John Kerry.

Obama, speaking at Carnegie Mellon University, urged the US Senate to take action on a bill that aims to reduce reliance on foreign oil while putting a price on carbon emissions. It was the fourth time in 12 days that Obama urged the Senate to act, comments that come in the wake of a massive oil spill in the Gulf Coast.

“Pittsburgh, I want you to know, the votes may not be there right now, but I intend to find them in the coming months,” Obama said. “I will make the case for a clean energy future wherever I can, and I will work with anyone to get this done, and we will get it done. The next generation will not be held hostage to energy sources from the last century. We are not going to move backwards, we are going to move forward.”

The comments immediately won plaudits from Kerry and Senator Joe Lieberman, who together filed energy and climate change legislation last month. The legislation has faced several hurdles, including no Republican support and a busy calendar ahead over the next two months before Congress leaves. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is planning to decide soon on whether to bring the climate change legislation to the floor this year, or if he will push for a smaller package. He has also pledged to take up an immigration overhaul this year.

“President Obama is clearly putting his shoulder to the wheel to pass comprehensive climate and energy legislation this year,” Lieberman and Kerry said in a joint statement. “Nothing could be more definitive than his explicit commitment today to find the remaining votes needed to pass this vital legislation.”

While critics have suggested that the oil spill has only added to the political uncertainty of passing the legislation this year, Kerry has argued that it makes the case more strong that alternative sources of energy should be promoted. President Obama also seemed to make that case this afternoon.

“Without a major change in our energy policy, our dependence on oil means that we will continue to send billions of dollars of our hard-earned wealth to other countries every month – including countries in dangerous and unstable regions,” Obama said. “In other words, our continued dependence on fossil fuels will jeopardize our national security. It will smother our planet. And it will continue to put our economy and our environment at risk.”

Matt Viser can be reached at [e-mail]. ,

[Mass]

3. Dave Roberts has a good article on this speech.

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-06-02-obama-on-the-climate-bill-we-will-get-it-done/

[Inuca]

4. OTOH

speculation I heard on TV, forgot who it was: there is an alternative bill coming from Jeff Bingman (sp? I never know how exactly his name is spelled) committee that is a watered down version dealing only with energy issues and ignoring the environmental ones, and supposedly this is the version Reid wants to bring forward.

[karynnj]

5. That bill already passed the Energy committee a long time ago

It clearly seems that President Obama is pushing Kerry's over that one. Bingaman has for months pushed just to go with the energy only bill. That would be devastating to passing a climate change bill in the near future because it has all the giveaways that are used as sweeteners to the climate change bill. (In addition, if done it could begin to take away one part of the national security argument - that we are paying for both sides of the wars.)

There is another bill that I really have not read much analysis on. Senator Lugar is going to introduce a bill - I think later this week - that is supposed to be a climate change bill based on parts of Kerry/Lieberman. It seems to concentrate on conservation - raising CAFE standards and requiring more energy efficient construction going forward. It speaks of greener sources of energy, but it does not set a price on carbon. At first glance, it looks like a stronger version of what the Rio conference recommended and thought could happen voluntarily. It is far weaker than Kerry's - it's goal is only about half of the reduction per this article - http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6516PQ20100602?type=politicsNews

Unfortunately, although parts of it - on requiring conservation measures especially - sound good, I think this is very likely intended to be a CYA that will allow Senators to say that they did vote to act against climate change. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=324021&mesg_id=324021

[Inuca]

6. Very interesting

Thanks Karyn.

[karynnj]

7. It really is interesting

If the Republicans thought Kerry's bill were a dead issue, I doubt they would try to propose an alternative. It also does suggest that even some Republicans are not happy with just the energy only bill. The real question is whether Kerry can get enough people to see that the mechanism of pricing carbon - no matter how it is done - is needed to push the economy to change fuel sources.

The voluntary method was tried by GHWB in 1992 after Rio. Nothing happened.

[MBS]

8. the best thing about this news is the suggestion that the president

may actually be listening to Sen. Kerry. Please, may Pres. Obama be listening hard, and learning FAST and learning well.

In the midst of this unspeakable (and, tragically, preventable) ecological nightmare, for which we, and the biosphere will pay for centuries and longer--I found myself dwelling on "if only"thoughts. If only Kerry had been president (or, before him, Gore. .) we would have had the gift of a president who really, truly GETS IT to the core of his soul. And that's what we need right now: an environmentally aware FDR to set the tone of the national conversation.

Obama is getting better, but, IMHO, he's still way, way too emotionally detached from these issues. He's seemed almost crabby about having to deal with this situation.. I've always known that the environment was not "his thing", so I'm not really surprised, but , dammit,now its time for him to to step up to the plate, and MAKE the environment his thing.THIS is the teaching moment for him and for all of us: THIS is when we have to learn , finally, belatedly to connect the dots, between oil and oceans, between greed and destruction, between humans and the rest of the living world. This is the moment for leadership, for a Teacher-in-Chief to step up to the plate and help us, finally, redefine the way we live.

(And, by the way, where, for God's sake, is Lubchenco? If anyone could lay out the truly biological consequences of the tragedy in the Gulf, it should be she.)

Heartbreaking.
And we haven't even begun to see the full extent of this tragedy.