Last week’s Senate debate on global warming was a turning point. Senator after senator acknowledged that the debate was no longer about the science, but about America’s response to the greatest environmental challenge of our time. It’s clear that government action aimed at significantly reducing the pollution that causes global warming is inevitable.

The science tells us we need to act quickly. The question now is how quickly the federal government will act. So far, next year looks like America’s best shot at becoming part of the solution.

In January 2009, the White House will cease to be America’s chief roadblock to progress on global warming. Last week’s Senate debate showed growing support for moving forward on global warming legislation in that chamber. Meanwhile, Ed Markey (D - Mass.) has introduced an ambitious, comprehensive global warming bill in the House and John Dingell (D - Mich.) has promised to hold hearings on global warming policy in July.

Members of Congress are already getting an earful from their constituents regarding our energy policy. Americans understand that it is broken and that it leaves us dependent on foreign oil, pollutes our air and puts consumers at the mercy of oil speculators. It’s time for lawmakers to embrace energy solutions that create new green jobs, reduce our oil dependence and avoid the worst consequences of global warming.

Recently, 1700 of the nation’s leading scientists and economists said that a good global warming policy is good economic policy, too http://www.ucsusa.org/climateletter. Now that nearly all of our federal representatives have embraced the scientific reality of global warming, they need to embrace the economic reality, too.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Politics .