House Passes Climate Bill

The Climate bill in question is described by the N. Y. Times as follows:

At the heart of the legislation is a cap-and-trade system that sets a limit on overall emissions of heat-trapping gases while allowing utilities, manufacturers and other emitters to trade pollution permits, or allowances, among themselves. The cap would grow tighter over the years, pushing up the price of emissions and presumably driving industry to find cleaner ways of making energy.

This Climate Bill is a positive first step. It does not, however, go anywhere near far enough and will not have anywhere near the effect to really stop or slow global warming. In fact, by itself it will have no long term effect on Global warming at all.

And the sad fact is that many "centrist" Democrats, and nearly all Republicans, protested the Climate bill. Show how foolish many Americans and many more American politicians still are. Still, the bill is being hailed by many as an important first step. The N. Y. Times, reports Al Gore's reaction:

“This bill doesn’t solve every problem,” Mr. Gore said, “but passage today means that we build momentum for the debate coming up in the Senate and negotiations for the treaty talks in December which will put in place a global solution to the climate crisis. There is no backup plan.”

Let us truly hope that the passing of this climate bill is a sign of bigger changes to come. It's better than anything we could have imagined under President Bush, but we still have far to go.