President Obama masterful in Cap and Trade
Three years ago, while attending a conference in eastern Europe, I was invited to an evening social gathering hosted by the local British ambassador. At one point, the ambassador asked if I thought it was possible to get the Kyoto treaty ratified in America.
Kyoto was an international agreement under which industrialized countries (as a whole) were to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gasses to 5.2 percent below what they were in 1990. It was legislation aimed at curbing manmade climate change identified by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Most of Europe and the rest of the world approved.
I replied to the Ambassador that I did not think it was possible to get the Kyoto treaty ratified in America. I did not see how my country would agree to self-cripple industries and transportation systems. Besides, as recently as 1997, the US Senate passed a resolution stating opposition to the Kyoto treaty – and passed it by a 95-0 vote.
Since then, climate change has become a hot issue, with substantial funds spent to burn the fires of discourse. But, cue the fire extinguisher – there is no point in debating any further.
The US House passed President Obama’s Cap and Trade Act. No one in Congress is sure about everything in it (it is 1500 pages long), but they do know it will strictly limit greenhouse gas emissions in America. The same principles opposed unanimously in the Senate twelve years ago have now been approved 219-212 in the House.
President Obama and his administration have been masterful in reversing a tide of opposition into a groundswell of support in the halls of Congress.
