Climate 411

This post is by Mark MacLeod, Director of Special Projects, Climate and Air Program, Environmental Defense.

Climate Vote 2007

Part of a series on the work of the Environmental Defense Action Fund to enact an effective climate law. You can help by writing to Congress.

For those who don’t live and breathe the legislative process, the political maneuverings on Capitol Hill can be very confusing. Politicians often introduce bills for no other reason than to carve out space in the political debate. These marker bills set the parameters of debate and give politicians space to define their positions.

Eventually, ideas from many of these marker bills may be pieced together in a single legislative vehicle around which the legislative process begins to coalesce. There are clear signs that we have reached this stage with the Lieberman-Warner America’s Climate Security Act (ACSA).

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The author of today’s post, Mark MacLeod, is Director of Special Projects for the national climate campaign at Environmental Defense.

This has been Climate Week in New York and D.C., starting with the U.N. conference on Monday, then the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting Wednesday through Friday, and finally the White House Major Economies Meeting today and tomorrow.

This week’s focus on global warming has prompted a flurry of letters around Washington, D.C. urging President Bush to support mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions.

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Today’s post is by Mark MacLeod, Director of Special Projects for our national climate campaign.

Last month, I wrote about the significance of Senators Warner and Lieberman joining forces to craft global warming legislation. I noted Senator Warner’s view that global warming is a question of national security.

Today, the senators outlined their plan (which Environmental Defense praised). But I also wanted to call out what I thought was the most interesting line in the Washington Post story. In relating the reasons that caused Senator Warner to become a leader in the Senate on climate change, the article states,

Warner said he was also prodded by retired Gen. James L. Jones and other former military officers who urged him to back a bill to slow global warming.

Those military leaders, like the business leaders in US-CAP, and leaders in the faith community, all show the strong and widespread momentum to deal with global warming.

The author of today’s article, Mark MacLeod, is Director of Special Projects for our national climate campaign.

What do you get when a longtime champion of the environment and a respected Republican voice on both the economy and national security join forces in the Senate to write a climate change bill? A real opportunity for bipartisan action on global warming.

On Wednesday, Connecticut Independent Joe Lieberman and Virginia Republican John Warner announced a groundbreaking commitment to develop a comprehensive greenhouse gas cap and trade bill. They intend to bring it to a vote in their panel on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee before the end of July.

A pile of climate bills have already been introduced in the Congress this year – why is this announcement such big news?

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