Environmentalists Attack House Global Warming Deal (TIME)

By Michael Weisskopf / Washington Saturday, May. 16, 2009

If it's this hard for Democrats to agree on tough global warming curbs, polar icecaps beware.

With the greenest lawmakers in charge and the President cheering them on, the prospects of sweeping controls on greenhouse gases seemed rosy. After a month of fighting among themselves, however, House Democrats announced an agreement Thursday that reflects more about the legislative process than the need to stop the planet from heating up. (See pictures of the effects of climate change.)

The announcement indicates that sponsors have enough Democratic votes to push a bill past its first legislative hurdle, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as early as next week. But the patchwork of concessions necessary to win over champions of industrial and regional interests weakened the initiative, leaving it far short of the global warming gas reductions that scientists insist are necessary to stave off catastrophic climate change.

"It's unacceptable to base this bill on politics, instead of good science," said Greenpeace's Damon Moglen.

The biggest concession to all industrial burners of fossil fuels raised the national cap on greenhouse gas emissions from the original proposal of 5.7 billion metric tons (BMT) by 2020 to 5.9 BMT. The difference may seem nominal until you consider what the elite scientific body, the International Panel on Climate Change, urges for the same timeline — a cap of at least 1.3 BMT lower. Only then will there be 50% chance of avoiding a major warming.
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more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1898896,00.html?xid=rss-topstories-cnnpartner

of the process in the House. What will happen to this legislation once it reaches the Senate, doesn't bear thinking about. I'm afraid there won't be real action until the Lincoln Memorial is an island and the tidal basin is lapping at the steps of the Capitol.