U.S. Senate Republicans have blocked efforts by the Democratic majority to move climate change legislation to the full Senate floor.
Democrats are portraying the maneuver as an example of Republican recalcitrance on climate change — a point on which they are correct — but the failure of the bill is not the defeat that the majority is making it out to be.
Before anyone writes me to complain that I’m some kind of oil-company stooge, I’m not denying climate change — on the contrary, we are at a crisis point on global warming. But the bill on the table — sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.) — was far weaker than was necessary to effect real change.
According to The Washington Post, the bill
would have introduced a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases as part of provisions to cut emissions linked to global warming nearly 70 percent by 2050.
That’s not enough, according to many in the environmental community:
The bill aimed to stabilize atmospheric carbon concentrations at 488 parts per million, rather than at 350 parts per million, which climate scientists such as NASA’s James E. Hansen see as necessary.
“Any bill that does not set us on track to reduce atmospheric carbon levels to 350 parts per million is wishful and dangerous thinking,” wrote Kierán Suckling, of the Center for Biological Diversity, in an e-mail. “We’re thankful the bill was introduced, but more thankful that it did not pass.”
Hank Kalet 