No Climate Change Bill This Year, Says Obama Adviser

The Associated Press:

WASHINGTON (AP)- President Barack Obama's top energy adviser says there is no way Congress will be able to pass a bill on climate change this year.

"That's not going to happen," the adviser, Carol Browner, said Friday.

Browner made the statement at a conference organized by The Atlantic magazine, just days after Senate Democrats introduced a major bill on climate change. In a video posted on the magazine's Web site, Browner was asked about the prospects of enacting climate legislation by the time negotiations on a global climate treaty begin in December in Copenhagen.

"Obviously, we'd like to be through the process, but that's not going to happen," Browner said. "I think we would all agree the likelihood you would have a bill signed by the president on comprehensive energy by the time we go early in December is not likely."

Senate Democrats unveiled a bill Wednesday that aims to cut greenhouse gasses by 20 percent by 2020. The House passed a bill in June that calls for a 17 percent emission cut by 2020.

The Senate bill includes an economy-wide cap-and-trade system that would require power plants, industrial facilities and refineries to cut carbon dioxide and other climate-changing pollution. While there would be an overall emission cap, polluters would be able to purchase emission allowances to limit reductions. The bill, however, does not lay out how emission allowances would be distributed, a contentious issue left for resolving later.

Climate change is competing with several other big issues for the attention of lawmakers. Among the issues: overhauling the nation's health care system and imposing new financial regulations on Wall Street.

Browner said the U.S. could still take a leading role at the Copenhagen talks, even without a new climate law.

"We will go to Copenhagen and manage with whatever we have," she said.

Read the whole story: The Associated Press

Comments

[frappe]

If you had to choose between survival of the planet (and its lifeforms) vs. survival of an economic system, which to you would be more important?

...Where are the priorities?!

[ohiomark]

Good!!

That means that my electric bill, gas bill and prices for everything I buy won't be going up as much.

The coming inflation from all the money we are printing will be bad enough.

"Man made" global warming/climate change/global cooling is a hoax anyway.

[jlab]

You're so right. Anybody who's seen those Gary Larson cartoons, knows that scientists just sit in their labs all day and try to come up with silly hoaxes. That's how they win their Nobel prizes and whatnot.

[frappe]

You're an easy "mark".

[ohiomark]

Wrong. If I were an "easy mark", I would be falling for all this bullsh*t about man made climate change, or whatever you DimLibs are calling it this week.

[DocSyracuse]

What!!?!? Didn't these guys watch "The Day After Tomorrow"!! We're doomed!!

[wdw505]

yes the movie was entertaining

[realpolitic]

We do not need climate change legislation this year, the EPA is acting....

"Unwilling to wait for Congress to act, the Obama administration announced on Wednesday that it was moving forward on new rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from hundreds of power plants and large industrial facilities­."


"The proposed rules, which could take effect as early as 2011, would place the greatest burden on 400 power plants, new ones and those undergoing substantial renovation, by requiring them to prove that they have applied the best available technology to reduce emissions or face penalties.­"

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/science/earth/01epa.html?_r=1&hp

Go Obama!

[So Calif Indpdnt]

NYT is a joke

[realpolitic]

Yes, they probably just made the story up! You are trained to bark when you see New York Times banner. Pavlov would have appreciated it.

[Chili4me]

Pictures of steam sure can be scary in the fall!!!

[windup]

During the last 8 years the Executive Branch ran the country all by itself (principally the vice president). Now Congress is running the country all by itself. And when you have -how many people is it? 600 or so? trying to reach an agreement on anything, it is quite plain that NOTHING is what is going to get done.

[DocSyracuse]

I agree. Mussolini had it right: let's go full Dictatorship!

[elmerfude]

Fumes and you other climate experts (sic) do not need to concern yourselves. The country does not have the intellectual, economic or moral stature to deal with climate change or any other major problem. Nothing will be done.

[fumes]

why not just focus on medicare for all..

and trapping our glacier-melting soot?

[elmerfude]

I am curious as to what type of fume you name yourself after -- glue?

[Brute]

I just hope the Liberals don't catch onto the global warming scam too quickly or else I'll have to go back to selling radiation suits and perpetual motion machines.

[fumes]

billions and billions (say it using your best carl sagan) of tons of CO2 are ostensibly added to the atmosphere annually yet:

1) the atmosphere is no heavier for it and

2) clear nights continue to give up the day's heat at the same rate as always and depend on the

timely sunrise to prevent complete heat loss..

so much for CO2!

[elmerfude]

It's a little hard to take you seriously fumes when you think the total weight of the atmosphere can be measured by observing a coffee pot at Starbucks.

[fumes]

say danceswith­CO2..

your coffee's hotter on cape cod than in aspen..

wanna know why?

[elmerfude]

Dear wrestling with soot. I know why but I seriously doubt you do. You still have not sent me your calculation and methodology showing that the atmosphere is not heavier today than say 50 years ago. By the way, I think you are the one obsessed with CO2. Its all you can talk about.

[elmerfude]

See this link to understand about the contribution of carbon dioxide to the weight of the atmosphere. http://www.grist.org/member/4056 Bottom line is that the increase in carbon dioxide is too small to be noticeable. When I was a scout camping in the Cascades, it was impossible to cook an egg by boiling it at least in a reasonable time. But the contribution of carbon dioxide to this is not noticeable because carbon dioxide is such a small component of the atmosphere. The changes in atmospheric pressure due to high and low pressure variations from the average of 14.7 psi are noticeable with a barometer. Now your mind being what it is will jump up and say aha. Because carbon dioxide is such a small component of the atmosphere, you will maintain it could not possibly contribute to global warming. But the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide is significant even at low concentrations. The physical processes are different. I go back to my cyanide analogy.

[fumes]

with the cyanide again..

roflmao!

[fumes]

primo..

arrhenius was wrong.. keep up:

http://www.physorg.com/print168791411.html

[primordialsoup]

Kinda sorta. From your article: "There were also changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and ocean circulation, but those happened later and amplified a process that had already begun."

[fumes]

correct.. think ginger ale:

you can keep carbonation in your soft drink for only a short while..

but longer if iced.. get it?

[ReedYoung]

Well, Arrhenius was trying to figure out what caused past ice ages, and his speculations about the Industrial Revolution increasing global temperature were only asides. He got the basic theory right, although it took better technology than was available in his time to prove it.
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.htm

Since the 1950s it has been a known fact the atmospheric CO2 concentration does cause warming.

[31BlueDog]

Cap N Trade has zero chance of passing.

If they couldn't get HCR through - the CapNTrade has no chance

[wdw505]

good

[Lyr]

It better not pass, the last thing we need to be doing is paying more money to goldman sachs.

[Brute]

Here's a couple more wonderful ideas:

Give me 100K and I'll dump dirt on the roof of your building and plant grass up there!

Lets grow food and instead of feeding people with it we'll burn it in our cars!

How about we get rid of light bulbs and replace them with light bulbs filled with mercury that cost 10 times as much!

I'm making a killing selling these stupid ideas to dopey Liberals..­....and they are paying me tons of money!

America is truly a wonderful country...­.........

[Lyr]

I hate CFL's. I refuse to use them. Mercury and cadmium are far more dangerous pollutants than C02 could ever hope to be.

[wdw505]

however mercury vapor lights work well for outside lights

[easarsfield]

really?

You are aware that CFLs contain 5 milligrams of mercury, compared to the 500 milligrams of mercury in thermometers, right?

What's dangerous is people's ignorance. People that do not recycle CFls and that don't know that when properly disposed, the mercury in their light bulbs is reprocessed and reused and not dumped in their environment.

[wehrke]

Cap and trade will not pass. It is too much of a lightening rod. I believe what could happen is an energy independence bill that focuses on natural gas use and nuclear. Couple that with a "manhattan project" for clean energy and at least you have the beginnings of a something that would reduce greenhouse gasses and put people to work in THIS country.

[Lyr]

Cap and trade is more financial industry "innovation". It's a rather unique scam where people pay to have thier standard of living lowered. If this nation was serious about pollution related to fossil fuels it would start with ending subsidies for fossil fuels.

[motoGpifupleez]

Where is the investigation into the motives of all the Liberal insects that are moving North now that the warmer climate allows them to survive in areas that were once inhospitable to them.
Obviously they are just trying to further Al Gore's agenda.
Lousy insects and their new found habitats.

[wdw505]

so the grain belt can move north and c02 is good for plant glowth....­....sounds good

[wdw505]

correction

so the grain belt can move north and c02 is good for plant growth....­­....sound­s good

[WorkingClass]

It seem unlikely to me that our corporate masters will undertake any meaningful action aimed at slowing climate change. Climate change is what it is and it will run its course.

[Lyr]

Uhm cap and trade is something the investment banks like goldman sachs and rothschilds want. It gives them another way to push worthless paper around and shake out real wealth from people.