If the best we can hope to get out of newly empowered Democratic Party controlled Congress is the politically palatable McCain-Lieberman-Obama "Let's Con Ourselves Into Believing That We're Really Doing Something to Save the Planet" bill, then we have to get out in the streets and raise some hell!

The Earth and its inhabitants will not survive if the best we can do is M-L-O's measly 2% per year reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists are telling us that we need an 80% reduction in GHGs yesterday! Just look around you to see what the impacts have been from a less than 2 degee F warming. What will a five or 10 degree F increase mean to the planet? How about "the end of life as we know it"?

Let's demand that Congress get beyond what's acceptable to the Fossil Fuel Industry and Big Business, and offer legislation that will improve our chances of survival. The Sanders-Boxer bill (Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act) would be a good place to start.

In the meantime, continue to push from the grassroots. Urge your city, its businesses, institutions, and residents to do their part. Local pressure is what is driving these changes at the state and federal level. Don't let up!

   There is a very special reason why local pressure is the current most effective way to promote real standards.

   Currently, environmentalists lack the strength to get good legislation through Congress.

   However, we can get different standards set, city by city.

   This will drive industry crazy, as they will face a myriad of different standards.  They hate this.

   They will in turn put pressure on Congress to come up with one set of national standards.

   Thus we will get to national standards, and have a fighting chance at making them decent.

   If they aren't, or where they are weak, go back to localities (point A) and start again.  (smile).

patrick

The only change that's coming is that agribusiness subsidies will shift from those that force us to eat corn to those that force us to put it in our cars.

Obama's first move?  Sponsor a "biofuels" bill.  Bush countered in the State of the Union.   The race is on to see who will funnel the most money to agribusiness disguised as "saving the planet".

Dupes include: most of Grist.Org

Nothing proposed will have much of an impact - this is not time to gently roll into less greenhouse gas emmisions and slowly into non-polluting renewables.  It's time to hit this thing with a sledge hammer - huge reductions, this year - even bigger reductions next year - no fossil fuels by 2020.  Yes, we will be in energy crisis and the economy will do crazy things, but it will pass and we will survive.  
This IS the survival of the planet we are talking about.