Earth Equity News

Partisan Lines Blur in Fight to Influence US Climate Law. By Darren Samuelsohn, WashPost, March 15, 2009. "President Obama's endorsement of climate legislation to clamp down on greenhouse gases has set off a lobbying rush in Congress and made the air thick with rival proposals... Coal companies, utilities, economists and environmentalists are vying to shape legislation that could rechannel hundreds of billions of dollars from one part of the economy to others. The sense of urgency has been heightened by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman's push to have a bill ready by the end of May; the California Democrat plans to circulate a draft in about two weeks... Most lawmakers and climate activists embrace... cap-and-trade... But seven House Democrats, including House Democratic Caucus Chairman John B. Larson (Conn.), introduced a carbon tax measure... At the center of the political battle in Congress are Democratic lawmakers like Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), whose state relies on coal-fired plants for 86 percent of its electricity; Evan Bayh (Ind.), whose state gets 94 percent of its electricity from coal; and Byron L. Dorgan (N.D.), whose state both relies on and exports coal-fired electricity and also has large wind potential. Republican lawmakers in the thick of the battle include Maine's Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe."