The Obama/McCain/Lieberman climate bill

It’s ... medium 7

The big news today is that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has joined with McCain and Lieberman to re-introduce a bill to cap carbon dioxide emissions.

The targets aren't all that ambitious -- it would slow the rise of CO2 emissions, cutting them two-thirds from present levels by 2050 -- but the bill is nonetheless expected to meet fierce resistance from all the usual dinosaurs. It sounds like its main purpose is to push the edge so that Bingaman can get his softer bill passed as a compromise.

All this, assessed purely as a response to global warming, amounts to pissing in the wind. But that's not necessarily the way to assess it. They're playing the long game, trying to take a bit of territory at a time. Next time legislation comes up, the edge can get pushed farther. Breaking the impasse is the key goal now.

Despite his lamentable support of clean coal, if Obama's name and fame can get the emissions-cap ball rolling, he may well worm his way back into my good graces. Perhaps I shouldn't sell out for so little. Perhaps I should wait for the Third Party Unicorn Pony Policy. But right now I'm in the mood to take what I can get.

David Roberts is staff writer for Grist. You can follow his Twitter feed at twitter.com/drgrist.

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  1. vertigo Posted 2:27 pm
    12 Jan 2007

    Very forward energyAfter hearing his statements about energy policy that he made at move on, I think Obama has a very genuine intention to change america's environmental policy. You have to keep in mind that he's Illinois' senator and so he also has to keep the jobs of his constituents in mind. Illinois has lost a lot of manufacturing jobs and the welfare of those workers are important as well. Having a coal processing plant in the US is better than getting oil from Saudi Arabia, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't also be working on emission reduction. But it's not an either or, we will use coal rather than oil and use renewable rather than coal once the technology gets there and there is enough government regulation to force the automaker's hand.

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  2. dlunn Posted 3:10 pm
    12 Jan 2007

    3 amigosNot quite -- last year McCain and Obama got into some snarkiness, but I do find it interesting that these three go-it-alone type guys are hanging together like this. Think it might be that their maverickness gets synergized and magnified by their proximity to each other. Just a theory.

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  3. sunflower's avatar

    sunflower Posted 3:18 pm
    12 Jan 2007

    Obamadoes not understand the threat of global warming.
    Reducing the market for Saudi oil via efficient cars and public transit is much cleaner and cheaper than coal to liquids.
    Reducing the market for Saudi oil for heat and hot water via efficient homes and solar hot water collectors is much cleaner and cheaper than CTL.
    Creating dirty jobs for political expediency at the expense of future civilizations is just wrong.

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  4. claxton6 Posted 12:58 am
    13 Jan 2007

    am i misrememberingThis seems weaker than the original McCain-Lieberman act. Am I just misremembering?

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  5. mcar2185 Posted 2:59 am
    13 Jan 2007

    It's about timeThis is a bill they should have re-introduced and passed a long time ago. Finally politicians are starting to realize the threat of greenhouse gas emissions to our environment. Hopefully this gets passed quickly.
    -mcar2185 at http://www.eco-cide.com/

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  6. amazingdrx's avatar

    amazingdrx Posted 3:31 am
    13 Jan 2007

    2050?Nuff said.  
    What can one expect from the traitorous formerly democratic Sen?  Surge!
    And McCaine?  Surge!
    Shame on you Sen Obama!
    BTW Dave,  Surge...URGE2.  Hehehey.  It's still good though!

    http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

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  7. Steven T Posted 6:24 am
    13 Jan 2007

    It's the politicsRoss Gelbspan has made a pretty convincing argument that Gore "lost" the 2000 presidential election because West Virginia went Republican for the first time in many moons.
    Political reality:  The coal industry and its allies have considerable power.  How to deal with that?
    Obama seems to be charting a centrist course, not unlike Mr. Clinton.  Is that selling out?  I dunno.  If I had to choose between McCain and Obama, that's a no brainer.  Am I happy about the prospect of having to choose between tweedle dum and tweedle dee?  Nope.
    Perhaps even in a post-Bush era, the real action on global warming will occur at the state and local levels.

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