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Midday Open Thread: Pelosi Says Climate Change Legislation Requires Obama |
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Nancy Pelosi and Al Gore visited Netroots Nation last week and talked about global warming. After her appearance Pelosi spoke to Grist.org, and made it clear she does not trust John McCain to tackle climate change if elected president:
I can’t even imagine how we go forward in many areas if we don’t win this election. There’s so much at stake. Barack Obama’s election is essential in so many ways…
John McCain has said he is interested in the climate change issue. He had said he opposed George Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy and changed his mind. He was the author of comprehensive immigration reform and changed his mind. And I don’t know how he will rally the Republicans behind something unless he has tremendous enthusiasm for it, and so far the two things he had enthusiasm for he has walked away from. So, the only answer to this is to elect Barack Obama president of the United States.
Pelosi also said she believes Al Gore’s JFK-esque call to phase out 100% of fossil-fuel based electricity in 10 years is “doable,” and praised his leadership in global warming. Last week in Washington the former Vice President challenged Americans to meet this goal, adding some truly progressive suggestions for how to go about it. From the Guardian:
Gore urged the US to institute a carbon tax that could be offset by reducing the payroll tax on employers.
“We should tax what we burn, not what we earn,” he said.Underpinning Gore’s remarks, however, was a finely tuned sense of the economic anxiety that dominates American life 13 weeks before the next presidential election. He observed that the environmental, fiscal, and national-security dangers facing the country would be eliminated by a conversion to clean energy.
“We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet,” Gore said to wild applause. “Every bit of that has got to change.”
I suppose it’s too much to hope Obama and Pelosi would go to bat for a carbon tax anytime soon, though Gore’s suggestion is certainly a great one.
Seminal readers, heard any straight talk today?
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