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US Climate Bill Not Likely This Year, says Obama Adviser
Carol Browner's bleak view deepens concerns negotiations will fail to produce meaningful agreement in Copenhagen
The White House has said for the first time that it does not expect to see a climate change bill this year, removing one of the key elements for reaching an international agreement to avoid catastrophic global warming.
Carol Browner speaking in Washington. (Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) In
a seminar in Washington, Barack Obama's main energy adviser, Carol
Browner, gave the clearest indication to date that the administration
did not expect the Senate to vote on a climate change bill before an
international meeting in Copenhagen in December.
Browner spoke barely 48 hours after Senate Democrats staged a campaign-style rally in support of a climate change bill that seeks to cut US emissions by 20% on 2005 levels by 2020.
"Obviously, we'd like to be through the process, but that's not going to happen," Browner told a conference hosted by the Atlantic magazine on Friday. "I think we would all agree the likelihood that you'd have a bill signed by the president on comprehensive energy by the time we go in December is not likely."
Browner's bleak assessment deepens concerns that negotiations, already deadlocked, will fail to produce a meaningful agreement in Copenhagen. It also threatens to further dampen the prospects for a bill that was struggling for support among conservative and rustbelt Democrats.
The UN has cast the Copenhagen meeting as a last chance for countries to reach an agreement to avoid the most disastrous effects of warming. Negotiators - including the state department's climate change envoy - admit it will be far harder to reach such a deal unless America, historically the world's biggest polluter, shows it is willing to cut its own greenhouse gas emissions.
Browner's comments undercut a campaign by Democratic leaders in the Senate, corporations and environmental organisations to try to build momentum behind the bill. The day before Browner's comments, John Kerry, the former presidential candidate who is one of the sponsors of the cap-and-trade bill, told a conference he remained confident the bill would squeak through the Senate.
Her remarks also raise further doubts about how forcefully the Obama administration is willing to press the Senate for a climate bill in the midst of its struggles over healthcare.
In the last two weeks, diplomats have grown increasingly frustrated with the administration. Negotiators say they understand Obama would have to struggle to get this agenda through the Senate, but say the president has shied away from opportunities to make the case for climate change.
Obama came in for harsh criticism from environmental organisations for failing to urge the Senate to act during a speech to the United Nations summit on climate change late last month. Environmental groups called it a "missed opportunity".
"If there is no serious US legislation in place then we will have delegations arriving and getting increasingly frustrated with nothing happening," said John Bruton, the European Union's ambassador.
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15 Comments so far
Show AllOf course. Why would saving the planet be a high priority?
Good. We don't need legislation. The EPA has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions under existing legislation. Just fricking do it already!
Editor: You are supposed to be smarter than we who double post.
Obama: A complete dud.
The top 1% of the extremely wealthy who own our government like things just the way they are. These people have a very serious mental illness. They have insatiable greed. They can NEVER HAVE ENOUGH. They always want more. In their greed they are killing our mother the Earth and all the creatures that live here. But so what? Profits in the short range are just wonderful.
Time for people to wake up and see what is going on. Turn off the TV folks, and smell the corruption that is killing you.
Are we surprised?
Has Obama followed through on any of his promises?
Ditch Obama and vote for who should have been President, Dennis Kucinich in 2012.
"Doin' a heck of a job, Browner"
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
I agree with "wantrealdemocracy" poster.
And unfortunately Obama is one of those people who can never have enough and will not have enough until he has taken everything he can from his stint in the White House.
I voted for Nader but my choice for President is Dennis Kucinich.
Climate controls, end to Nafta and WTO, end to war, single-payer healthcare, end to welfare for the rich will be realized through a Dennis Kucinich Presidency.
Kucinich is my choice too, and I was disappointed to be unable to vote for him in the last primary (I'm in Ohio).
I understand, though, that a Dennis Kucinich Presidency does not guarantee anything because the control lies elsewhere. I see a lot of complaining in here about Obama but it's our state senators and representatives who are caving to the pressure of lobbyists and special interests, preventing the things you listed from happening. The man can only approve or veto what they give him. Do you think if they put a single-payer bill down for him to sign he'd veto it? I don't.
Corruption in our government has been brewing for many years, and until we remove all influence of big business and special interests from the halls of Congress we'll never realize any of the ideals you listed. This activity needs to be outlawed completely in my opinion, but I have little optimism regarding that because I can't see a group of corrupt individuals agreeing to ban corruption. Meanwhile the sands in the hourglass are running out rapidly and I'm afraid a process has begun we may not be able to stop or alter. The events taking place in the world's oceans are disturbing: the acid, the methane, the melting ice shelves in Greenland and Antarctica. The best course of action for any of us to take right now is to get ready for the oncoming disasters because when the crap hits the fan those lawmakers aren't going to do any more for us than they are currently.
Obama: Change you can grow old waiting for...
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Your slogan perfectly describes this administration.
Climate change off the table thanks to Browner and Obama a couple of corporate whores.
kw
There is an underlying misconception that Superman Obama will save the US, the world and the universe and if anything goes wrong it is because Superman is lazy, a coward, in the pocket of corporations or whatsoever. The debates about climate and healthcare reform show that the US Presidency has become hollowed out by the wealthy and the corporations. No use leaning back and watching Superman perform.
In fact, the wealthy and the corporations have become so blinded by greed and so intellectually stupid, that they and the Republican Party have become the greatest threat to earth. Millions of people are even more stupid: They support those who rob them and do their bidding. How stupid can you get?
We need to get acquainted with the idea that we won't see real change when such a large number can so easily be brainwashed and manipulated. Waiting for Obama to do the job is not going to be enough.
In the meantime the US thinks it is the navel of the world while the world is more and more bypassing and ignoring the US.
Right, Global Warming can wait -- it's going no where!!!????
Elites are suicidal and they're taking us with them -- !!
"According to all myth, the female - not the male -- gives life"
1) The world has been waiting for twenty years for the US to get off it's collective junk food bloated, SUV driving, TV watching ass and actually DO something. But as goes the US, so goes the world.
The US continually says it will only undertake a modest reduction of it's emissions only if and when the rest of the developing world undergoes drastic cuts of their own. Understandably, the developing world refuses to undertake their cuts until the US makes substantial and immediate cuts of it's own. Add to that the developing worlds addiction to the American style consumer lifestyle that has been pushed on developing nations by a cultural genocide US media and the interference in local affairs by the IMF and World Bank.
2) The impending and escalating dangers of an increasing positive feedback loop of climate change is underway, but the corporate deniers and noise machine is able to buy more media time than the scientists who are uncovering just how bad the situation is. The deniers are now harping that the most recent data is showing that climate change is spiraling further and further beyond even the worst case scenarios of even ten years ago.
HELLO!!!
Godsdammit! It's called evidence and science and fact for a reason. The longer this goes on, the more data is available, and the more refined the predictions can be made. Of course the predictions are more dire. We have done *nothing* to enact even the most watered down proposals for cutting carbon and other emissions anywhere in the world for the reasons cited above!
3) Peak Oil and other peak resources is truly upon us. Every major oilfield in the world is reporting a constant reduction in output, no matter how hard they are pumping.
NO MAJOR NEW OILFEILDS HAVE BEEN FOUND IN OVER THIRTY YEARS!
With the reduction of the oil supply, the inevitable decline of Western Technological Civilization is assured. And there is nothing you can do to stop it! No combination of alternative energy programs, even combined, will ever achieve more than a fraction of the output of oil. Add the coming absolute crash in petroleum based pesticides and fertilizers, you are looking at the end of the massive industrial scale of agriculture.
4) We are already seeing the effects. Increased acidification and warming of the oceans, the loss of polar ice mass, increasing desertification, changes in local temperature norms and increased frequency and power of storms of all kinds.
On the Oil/economy front, the continuing world economic meltdown, the mothballing of twelve percent of the world's cargos shipping fleet, the potential end of using oil supertankers, increased prices of consumer goods, runaway ammo sales in the US, spiraling unemployment and loss of human rights worldwide. Countries that have materiel essential to the computers and devices that make modern tech feasible are starting to hoard them for their own domestic use.
When you look at all this, taking into account ALL factors, if you are expecting a corporate shill with possible CIA connections to bring 'Hope(TM)' and 'Change(TM)', please take the following suggestion seriously:
YOU ARE DELUSIONAL! Seek qualified medical help immediately!