Is it Energy's Turn Now - A blog about Energy and the Environment

“With the overhaul of financial regulation nearing completion, some Democrats are hoping that Congress can turn to the next big legislative challenge – energy and climate change. There is no consensus yet what such legislation should include, but there is strong determination on the part of the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress to try to move something – anything – before Congress leaves town in August.”

“President Obama hoped to give the matter a boost this week by calling a bipartisan group of senators to the White House for a pep talk, but he canceled at the last minute to deal with a crisis in his military leadership in Afghanistan. The president is now planning to host the energy meeting on Tuesday.”

“The House, as usual, is one step ahead of the Senate, having already passed a major climate change bill including a broad cap and trade program designed to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases last spring.”

GreenTech Opinion: We mentioned the slow progress of a Senate Climate and Energy Bill in our April issue. Although events have conspired to slow the Bill’s process even further in the meantime, signs have emerged this past week that we may yet see some positive movement by the summer’s end. We’ll end with a quote from Senator Kerry, “we’re determined to bring a bill to the floor of the Senate that we think is reasonable, makes sense, and that will help Americans be able to grab a hold of the future and not leave it to China and India and Brazil and other countries that are moving much faster than we are.” Here’s hoping…

Read the full blog post here:

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/is-it-energys-turn-now/