Frustration On Global Warming Deepends For Supporters Of Climate Bill

[hatrack]

Frustration among lawmakers backing climate change legislation is palpable in the wake of the latest evidence of global warming. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Wednesday announced that 2010 was tied for the hottest year on record, yet Democrats in Congress said the nation is not getting any closer to taking action on greenhouse gas emissions.

“How many times do we have to be smacked in the face with factual evidence before we address global climate change? Report after report keep confirming it’s getting worse every year,” an exasperated Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said in a statement Wednesday. It does not appear that Kerry and his allies will make much progress in 2011.

Democrats’ hope for passage of a cap-and-trade bill have been dashed, and the best liberals can hope for is a narrow energy bill that, among other things, requires a certain percentage of the country’s electricity to come from renewable sources like wind and solar. Even that legislation faces the possibility of being expanded to include nuclear, coal with carbon capture technology and natural gas.

And while the Obama administration has already taken action to begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and refineries, Republicans — bolstered by their majority in the House and their increased numbers in the Senate — and Rust Belt Democrats are hoping to block the administration’s climate change authority. A big part of the problem, acknowledged by some advocates, is that data like NOAA’s have so far failed to convince the American people there is a desperate problem. According to a Rasmussen poll released Wednesday, 44 percent of Americans believe climate change is caused by natural “planetary trends,” while 40 percent of Americans say climate change is caused by human activity.

EDIT

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/137889-frustration-on-global-warming-deepens-for-supporters-of-climate-change-legislation

And if you want to know what the Real Americans are thinking, just read the comments at the linked article. You'll feel your brain shrink in real time . . .

[joshcryer]

1. 2 years. Don't even worry about fighting for it because you'll just get shafted in the compromise...

...part. :(

[pscot]

2. They could shut the place down

if they were serious. The Replicants do it over trivia. The Democrats choose comity over the survival of 7 billion people.

[jimlup]

3. Yeah, thanks I've been working the crowd on a mainstream site...

It is like talking to a brick wall and the deniers on the site help stir the pot and make it look like there is a real debate even though there is not. They always lose all of their points (by a great deal actually) but it is a game of wack-a-mole as most here know.