Green groups want to use the recession as an excuse to make the Senate climate bill tougher than Waxman-Markey.
According to ClimateWire:
The problem with staying at 17 percent, environmentalists argue, is that the economic recession has made meeting the target much too easy for businesses.
According to the Energy Information Administration, carbon dioxide output is likely to decline 6 percent this year, following a 3 percent slide in 2008. In 2010, emissions will rise, but by less than 1 percent, according to the agency.
“We’re already halfway to the 17 percent target without even trying,” said Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “I don’t think many members of Congress know that.”
The strategy is not without risk though:
“The risk they run is that their whole effort could be branded as a statement of the left,” said Manik Roy, a congressional expert at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, a think tank that backs congressional action on climate. “No matter how good the rest of the bill is, it’s going to be hard to escape that label.”
Yes, it will be hard to escape a label that rings true.
I’m with livingwill1. Stupid time to try and pass stupid legislation. Unfortunately, nothing associated with this agenda has ever been about the facts or reality. So they will try and try…
They seem utterly clueless. The WORST time to try to get people to do anything for the environment is during a recession. People are far too worried about losing their jobs to allow something that will lose even more jobs to go through.