Climate 411

This post is by Tony Kreindler, Media Director for the National Climate Campaign at Environmental Defense. It’s the third in a series on Why a Bill in 2008:

1. Same Politics in 2009
2. Good versus Perfect
3. The Price of Waiting
4. The World is Waiting
5. Best Answer to High Gas Prices

In previous posts, I’ve covered two reasons why Environmental Defense is pushing for climate legislation in 2008 – the politics will be very much the same in 2009, and we don’t want to gamble away a good bill on the chance of a perfect one someday.

Today I’ll look at a third reason: The price of waiting, even a year or two, is simply too high. Carbon dioxide concentrations are higher today than they’ve been in 650,000 years, and our emissions rate is increasing. It’s crucial that we start aggressively cutting emissions as soon as possible.

Here’s the math.

Source: the national allowance account for the years 2012 – 2020 from the S.2191 as reported out of the EPW Committee. The emissions growth from 2005 to 2013 is assumed to be 1.1 percent (an average of the 2004 and 2005 rate reported by the EPA [PDF]).

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This post is by Tony Kreindler, Media Director for the National Climate Campaign at Environmental Defense. It’s the second in a series on Why a Bill in 2008:

1. Same Politics in 2009
2. Good versus Perfect
3. The Price of Waiting
4. The World is Waiting
5. Best Answer to High Gas Prices

Why support the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (CSA)? It’s pretty good, but not perfect. If we wait until after the election, maybe we can do better.

Or maybe not.

Waiting doesn’t guarantee a better bill, and going with CSA doesn’t mean we’re stuck with all its current provisions. Don’t let the "perfect" be the enemy of the "good". We’ve made this mistake before.

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This post is by Tony Kreindler, Media Director, National Climate Campaign, Environmental Defense.

Environmental Defense commissioned the Republican polling firm Ayres, McHenry & Associates – who no one could accuse of a left-wing bias – to survey voters in 49 swing congressional districts about their views on climate change (view full survey results [PDF]).

Notably, independent voters – who could have a big say in which party controls the Congress after the next election – think that Congress should stop bickering and pass legislation that requires cuts in carbon emissions.

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