Saturday, September 22, 2007

Climate Change Legislation

Yglesias has a nice summary of what the different climate change bills floating around would accomplish. The answer--not too much. There are some decent bills out there. The Sanders/Boxer/Waxman bill is pretty strong. But even if that were to be passed, industry will do everything in its power to water down the regulations and undermine the bill's spirit by claiming this will destroy the American economy. Hell, industry will do the same thing with the more moderate bills too.

Worse, climate change is not even a major issue in the presidential election. I would be shocked if any of these bills gets passed before the election. I would be even more shocked if Americans actually decide to implement the bill's provisions and make real changes to their lifestyle to save the planet.