Today, Nancy Pelosi got behind the Safe Climate Act, which brings the bill up to 33 co-sponsors.  Thanks to Henry Waxman and his brilliant staff, the House is quickly moving past the Senate in the debate on global warming.  The Senate is hamstrung by a group of cantankerous old Senators, like Pete Dominici and Jim Inhofe, who don't want any action on global warming.  This pulls the debate way to the right, since Senators just LOVE compromise.  Mostly the Senate is focused on energy, since handing out subsidies is easier than figuring out ways of getting people to go carbon neutral.

In the House, the Safe Climate Act actually deals with the problem, using market solutions.  There's even a MySpace page for the Safe Climate Act. Hopefully the extreme heat wave we're seeing over much of the country, combined with the wildfires, power outages, and associated environmental problems (like various species moving into new territories and wreaking havoc) will have the effect of waking politicians up.

Regardless, the minority leader signing on to this legislation is a huge deal.  She takes global warming very seriously.  Kudos.

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One of my favorite Congressmen, Henry Waxman, just put forward the Safe Climate Act. Waxman has an absolutely incredible and intelligent staff.  Some of the smartest people I've met in DC work for him; they really get the technical craft of building good policy, as well as the need for Congressional oversight.  

And now he's dipping his toe into the emergency that is global warming.

Scientists have concluded that the planet faces a grave risk of irreversible and devastating global warming if global temperatures increase by more than 3.6°F.  To protect against these catastrophic impacts, the Safe Climate Act sets greenhouse gas emissions targets that aim to keep temperatures below the danger point.  The level of emissions is frozen in 2010, gradually reduced by 2% each year through 2020, and then reduced by 5% each year through 2050.

The Safe Climate Act achieves these targets through a flexible economy-wide cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions, along with measures to advance technology and reduce emissions through renewable energy, energy efficiency, and cleaner cars.

According to Rep. Waxman, "In effect, the Safe Climate Act sets the targets and then unleashes market forces and American ingenuity to solve the climate problem."

At least one party is strong enough to address the greatest challenge the planet has ever faced.  I wish I could make some clever observation about some aspect of this that could be improved, but all I have to say is go Henry Waxman!

And if Obama puts forward this legislation in the Senate, then he'll be using his political capital for a cause as big as his reputation.  Come to think of it, if any legislator signs onto this or introduces it into the Senate, or any candidate puts this on his/her web site, a lot of people will begin to believe that the Democratic Party is ready to govern again.

So who's been talking about this?  I know Obama among others has been talking big about global warming.  Not that I object, since it really deserves big talk, but let's take that discussion to the next level.

And meanwhile, Go Waxman!

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