A Moving Climate Storm on the Gulf Coast. Plaintiffs Move Forward, While Senate Deliberates
When the fury of Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, many saw this as a tipping point in US public perception towards the reality of climate change. Levees broke, people died, clean water was not available, valuable property flooded, buildings were left hazardous and roads were destroyed. As Chairman Edward Markey (D-MA), Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming has stated, “Perhaps no weather disaster highlights our weakness to climate challenges than our inadequate response to Katrina, which still haunts us several years later.” Not coincidentally, President Obama took the opportunity in his recent trip to New Orleans to plead for bipartisan approaches to passing comprehensive energy and climate change legislation.
Continue Reading...CO2 Is Green
I was watching television Sunday night when a political ad comes on urging viewers to "contact their Senators today" to oppose Congressional efforts to regulate CO2. Having seen a number of these before, it barely registered - except when midway through the piece, the voice over states "In fact higher CO2 levels than we have today would help the Earth's ecosystem and support more plant and animal life." Wait a minute, is this one of those joke commercials from Saturday Night Live? Nope, it is the work of a new campaign by an interest group that goes by the name "CO2 Is Green." The group seeks to challenge the lies being pushed by those foolish climate scientists, those silly PhDs, who seem to believe that rising levels of atmospheric CO2 is causing climate change. If you peruse the "CO2isgreen.com" website, you will laugh and cry at the same time.
Continue Reading...Climate Legislation and The Redskins
Its fall in Washington, DC and there are two things most have agreed upon this season: the Redskins football squad looks bad as do any hopes of the Senate passing climate legislation prior to UN negotiations in Copenhagen. While the Redskins offense continues to lack a passing game, a new playbook focused on corporate leadership and bipartisanship may be turning things around in the Senate. Yet pessimism remains as some observers believe one key political gap is a quarterback in the White House who will engage and make it a legislative priority.
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