From MyDD, some terrific news indeed:
President Bush’s bid to rewrite the nation’s air pollution laws groundto a halt in Congress Wednesday when Republicans were unable toovercome objections in the Senate Environment and Public WorksCommittee that the bill would weaken central pillars of environmentalprotection.
…Democrats, joined by Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., and Sen. LincolnChafee, R-R.I., said that negotiations had been conducted in bad faith,that the initiative’s pollution control targets were set too low, andthat certain loopholes in the bill were irresponsible.
Nice to see the New England moderate crowd getting rowdy. (Not too surprising, though — the crap that Gary, Indiana spews forth ends up here. Here’s another link to research on that.)
And how about this? The Bush family fixer himself leaves the reservation:
[Former Sec. of State James A.] Baker, in a speech to an audience that included a number of oil companyexecutives, said "orderly" change to alternative energy was needed.
"It may surprise you a little bit, but maybe it’s because I’m ahunter and a fisherman, but I think we need to a pay a little moreattention to what we need to do to protect our environment," he toldthe Houston Forum Club.
"When you have energy companies like Shell and BritishPetroleum, both of which are perhaps represented in this room, sayingthere is a problem with excess carbon dioxide emission, I think weought to listen," Baker said.
"Wait — is this mic on?" Baker added. [OK, I made up this line. The rest is real.]
It seems to me that in light of the bizarre weather we’re having all over the country — indeed, the world — this year, maybe folks are starting to get a little spooked. I am — and so are insurers.
So … anyone else in the party want to step up and make this a major, winning, definitive issue for us? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
