Climate Security Action

Quick post-mortem on Lieberman-Warner 5

A quick post-mortem on this week's vote on the Climate Security Act, which was pulled from the Senate floor on Friday after its sponsors fell short of the 60 votes needed to proceed to final debate. I think I can safely sum it up in one word: progress.

There's the obvious marker of a majority of the Senate -- 54 senators in all -- voicing support for moving forward with the bill. Forty-eight voted for cloture, and another six offered written statements of support. Only 36 voted against.

But there's another important part of progress that's less obvious, what a colleague of mine calls "clearing the underbrush" -- many in Congress don't focus on the finer details of legislation until it is set for a vote.

In the past few weeks, Senate offices that never before explored the weeds of climate policy took a very deep dive.

The raw numbers bode well for action in the next Congress. But the process itself can't be overlooked, and we won't get quick action in 2009 unless senators and members of the House of Representatives continue to dig into the details and figure out what works, what doesn't, and what it all means for their constituents.

It's encouraging that the House isn't waiting: Just this week, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell announced a series of legislative hearings and Rep. Ed Markey introduced a bill that looks to be the most comprehensive proposal yet in the House.

Given that the sponsors of the Climate Security Act plan to bring up the bill next year, the House looks to be moving, and the presumptive nominees of both parties say they plan to act on climate change, a post-mortem may not even be in order, even one as short as this.

Once the dust settles, I'll be back with a closer look at the Senate vote and what it means for what's to come.

Tony Kreindler is national media director for climate at Environmental Defense Fund.

Related Stories

Advertisement
Advertisement

  1. maxgladwell Posted 5:57 pm
    07 Jun 2008

    Softening up the RepublicansThis was a sparring round to see where the weaknesses were. It will provide some fodder for the November election...in favor of the Dems. It lacked sufficient teeth, anyway. We'll revisit a much stronger version under the Obama administration with a larger majority in both houses.

    MaxGladwell.com

    The Nexus of Social Media and Green Living

    Permalink

  2. 5001 Posted 8:01 pm
    07 Jun 2008

    comment to commenti absolutely agree with MaxGladwell. i think it is just for election...

    5001 Your Resource

    Permalink

  3. randino Posted 2:29 am
    09 Jun 2008

    Needs to be a Rust Belt Strategy.As I said in another post, the rust belt states such as Ohio, are to climate action, what the old Dixiecrat South was to civil rights. There is only one way this nut will be cracked and that is an inside/outside strategy. Namely mobilize climate activists in the rust belt, and get ideas, money and technical advice from the more advanced parts of the country, and then CHARGE!
    Regarding Ohio and Democratic Senator Brown's vote against the Climate Security Act, a correspondent of mine brought up an interesting point. Brown has now provided cover for Republican Senator George Voinovich, who is one of the most notorious of the Triple D crowd (Deny, Delay, Dither). This really screws things up for Ohio environmentalists in opposing Voinovich's next election.
    Randy Cunningham

    Cleveland, OH

    Randy Cunningham

    Permalink

  4. khouri96 Posted 6:01 am
    10 Jun 2008

    Who didn't show up to vote?As noted, this was a very close vote -- but what I don't understand and what has not been commented on are the people who did not show up:  Clinton, McCain & Obama did not show up to vote.  And their statements of support -- and those of others who didn't show are MEANINGLESS.  People need to be putting pressure on those who chose to vote against this as well as those who chose not to show up to vote.  (Kennedy, Byrd & Specter all have serious health issues -- Specter's office indicated that he would have voted against it.)

    Permalink

  5. allancass Posted 8:30 am
    11 Sep 2008

    Climate Security ActClimate Security Act is an important topic and I hope Obama administration will put more effort on it.
    Find Duplicate Images

    Permalink

Add a Comment

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have an account, log in. If you don't have an account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.

Hello, Visitor!    Why not register?

Viewed
More
Commented
More
Advertisement