Senate poised to take up sweeping global warming bill

[jpak]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/environment/2008-05-17-global-warming_N.htm

WASHINGTON — Landmark legislation to reduce global warming is set to spark an intense Senate debate in early June.
While it is unlikely to become law this year, the Climate Security Act is seen by both supporters and opponents as evidence of how far Congress has moved on the issue and how quickly a bill is likely to pass after a new president moves into the White House in January and a new Congress takes office.

"I really believe that if we don't get across the finish line this year, we will next year," said bill proponent Jeremy Symons, executive director of the global warming campaign at the National Wildlife Federation. "This is the first bill to have a serious chance of getting passed."

The bill, by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., is the first major global warming legislation to be approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. It would reduce global warming emissions by more than 65% by 2050 in an effort to slow devastating climate change that could cause massive flooding along U.S. coasts, increase the number and strength of hurricanes in the Gulf states, create drought throughout the Midwest farm states, and fuel more wildfires in the West.

<more>

[End Of The Road]

1. Someone familiar with the detail on this one, tell me...

Is it too little too late? Or can it really make a difference? I am happy to see some leadership out of the Senate on this, regardless.

[kestrel91316]

2. IMHO, whether or not it's "too little, too late" is irrelevant.

We created the mess. We have a duty to do everything within our power to clean it up. PERIOD.

I really don't think we can expect the polar bears and spotted owls and salmon to clean up after us.