Earth Equity News

Amidst Growing Signs of Climate Change, Prospects for Climate Legislation Unlikely Before 2013. By Juliet Eilperin, WashPost, September 24, 2010. "For all the visible signs of global warming, weakened political support for curbing emissions means the United States is unlikely to impose national limits on greenhouse gases before 2013, at the earliest. Several leading GOP candidates this fall are questioning whether these emissions even cause warming, while some key Democratic Senate candidates are disavowing the cap-and-trade bill the House passed in 2009. 'I don't see a comprehensive bill going anywhere in the next two years,' Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, told a Washington policymakers conference sponsored by Reuters on Tuesday [9/21/10]. This disconnect has left environmentalists and many climate scientists pessimistic… Even some Democratic Senate candidates are playing down the prospect of a federal cap on carbon emissions. Bennet, during a debate with Buck this month, said he opposes the House-passed climate bill, and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal -- who backed Senate climate legislation in 2009 - recently told one voter that 'cap-and-trade is dead.'"