Climate Chance Legislation

By Matthew Yglesias
Via Dave Roberts, the World Resources Institute's report on different pieces of climate change legislation in the pipeline that comes complete with this graphic representation (click for a bigger view): usclimatetargets-chart1-small.png As you can see, the best bill -- and the only one that can actually help stabilize the carbon situation -- is the Sanders-Boxer bill. Meaning that if a legislator who represents your state or district, or to whom you've given money or have any other sort of institutional tie to, is backing some other bill but not Sanders-Boxer, you have good reason to ask them why, if they're interested in doing something about climate change, they're not interested in signing onto a bill with a chance to succeed? The good news, however, is that several more moderate bills have a similarly trajectory through 2020 or even 2030 so if the ultimate result (as seems likely) is for something more moderate than Sanders-Boxer to pass, the planet isn't doomed -- the law will just need to be amended down the road. But for a more moderate bill to pass, in practice, is going to require growing support for even more robust measures,

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/09/climate-chance-legislation/46362/