Hot ticket: Insight on next moves for the U.S. Congress

Question: Where do Hill staffers get treated more like celebrities than say, Bianca Jagger?

Answer: Poland in winter at the first U.N. climate change convention since the seismic political elections in the U.S.

Hundreds of climate change delegates, environmental and business types and journalists jammed a large meeting hall at a Congressional event co-sponsored by Environmental Defense Fund in the historic town of Poznan tonight.

They packed the aisles. They spilled outside into the corridors. They strained to hear every word over the extra loudspeakers hooked up to accommodate the unexpectedly huge crowd.

All for a bit on insight into the newly -elected U.S. Congress’ attitude toward climate change legislation.

With no official Obama transition team at these climate talks, members of Congress are the next best substitute.

As for Bianca who’s here to promote environmental issues?

Let just say there was plenty of room to sit at her press conference today.

santa poznan

Santa leads a pack of enviro bikers in Poznan

Brave new world

Of course the Congressional staffers here today were all from the old Congress.

Like Lorie Schmidt, representing Congressman John Dingell, recently deposed as head of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee for the new Congress.

She acknowledged that many Americans have reacted with “relief and optimism that the U.S. would be taking a different approach to climate change in the coming year.”

She noted that her boss’s replacement, Congressman Waxman, “is more aggressive” than her boss on climate change issues.

Staffer Mark Helmke, who works for Sen. Lugar, could hardly contain his enthusiasm:

He said America and the world are facing the greatest economic reordering “since the Industrial Revolution.”

“We have to move out of the realm of this being an environmental treaty—this is an economic, finance and trade treaty.”

Sen. John Kerry is scheduled to arrive later this week.

Don’t expect to find an empty seat at his press conference either.

homeless polar bear

A homeless polar bear in Poznan

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