If bipartisanship ever emerges in the national fight against climate change, the guiding light will likely come from the Northeast. But even here, it is only a glimmer.
The prime vehicle is the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Last week, nine participating states agreed to nearly halve the cap on carbon emissions produced by power plants. The current cap is 165 million tons. Under the law, power plants pay a price for each ton of carbon dioxide they spew, giving them an incentive to convert to greener forms of energy. The states would then invest any fees in energy efficiency and renewable energy programs.
Comments
I think you are looking at it the wrong way. The fossils fuels industry isn't going to stop funding Republican politicians. Any hope of bipartisanship when it comes to fighting global warming is a pipe dream.
On the other hand, Republican voters are not idiots. They can see with their own eyes the extreme storms, enormous wildfires, and worst of all, crippling long-lasting drought, that the effects of global warming are with us now. When they see that their elected representatives are cheerleading to increase CO2 emissions and make these problems worse, Republican voters will switch parties and the GOP will go the way of the Whig Party. The change has been happening for a while now--many sensible financially conservative voters identify as Independent rather than Republican. Global warming denialism will just be the final nail in the GOP's coffin. It wasn't that long ago that John McCain was working on a carbon tax bill, and now the idea of such a bipartisan action is unthinkable. We are all the worse for such anti-science cowardice.
10 killer questions for climate extremists
CO2 concentration has risen by 10% in the past 23 years, but the RSS satellite global lower-troposphere temperature-anomaly record shows warming over that period that is statistically indistinguishable from zero. How come?
read the other 9 here:
http://sppiblog.org/news/10-killer-questions-for-climate-extremists
http://www.skepticalscience.com/monckton-myth-16-bizarro-world-sea-level.html
http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/2139
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Science_and_Public_Policy_Institute
http://bbickmore.wordpress.com/category/science-and-public-policy-institute/
it doesnt exist
Republicans invented cap and trade policy to reduce the sulfur dioxide that caused acid rain. It worked very well. Republicans should be part of the solution to reduce co2 emissions. They know co2 is causing global warming, melting of polar ice and threatening water supplies. Instead of signing a no new tax pledge, how about a fix the environment pledge?