A Quick Post-Mortem on CSA (and see you next week)

Sheryl CanterThis post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Our media director, Tony Kreindler, posted a brief post-mortem analysis on Grist that raises an interesting point. He says:

But there’s another important part of progress that’s less obvious, what a colleague of mine calls “clearing the underbrush” – many in Congress don’t focus on the finer details of legislation until it is set for a vote.

In the past few weeks, Senate offices that never before explored the weeds of climate policy took a very deep dive.

The raw numbers bode well for action in the next Congress. But the process itself can’t be overlooked, and we won’t get quick action in 2009 unless senators and members of the House of Representatives continue to dig into the details and figure out what works, what doesn’t, and what it all means for their constituents.

It’s encouraging that the House isn’t waiting: Just this week, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell announced a series of legislative hearings and Rep. Ed Markey introduced a bill that looks to be the most comprehensive proposal yet in the House.

Given that the sponsors of the Climate Security Act plan to bring up the bill next year, the House looks to be moving, and the presumptive nominees of both parties say they plan to act on climate change, a post-mortem may not even be in order, even one as short as this.

Environmental Defense Fund is having its annual retreat this week, so you won’t see new posts in Climate 411 until Monday. Have a great week!

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2 Comments

  1. steveshoap
    Posted June 11, 2008 at 8:05 pm | Permalink

    I know that the previous energy bill will obsolete 100W incandescent bulbs in 2012. What bugs me is that people are now linking CFL’s to mercury and acting like they are bad.

    PLEASE start a campaign that explains that much more mercury is going into the air from burning coal.

    We seem to have lost the desire to get people to buy CFL’s.
    What happened to the Wallmart campaign? If I go through a Wallmart there is never a display explaining CFL’s.

  2. dlt1580
    Posted June 15, 2008 at 12:12 pm | Permalink

    I find it very interesting that less than 2% of the carbon footprints are man made

    Steve Shoap….the CFL’s are bad news and one of the worst legislations ever. People arent lying to you.

    Al Gore was just proven a liar in England because he skewered many things in his propaganda lie called an inconvienient truth. It was proven that he took information in the middle of a cycle of 400 years and that changed many things. If Global Warming actually existed, why all the constant lying?

    Its all about money.