{"id":11567,"date":"2010-04-23T21:43:55","date_gmt":"2010-04-23T21:43:55","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-04-23T21:43:55","modified_gmt":"2010-04-23T21:43:55","slug":"not-again-the-fringe-right-takes-aim-at-climate-change-before-seeing-the-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2010\/04\/23\/not-again-the-fringe-right-takes-aim-at-climate-change-before-seeing-the-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Again:  The Fringe Right Takes Aim At Climate Change Before Seeing the Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today we learn that the far-right have launched a new operation to attack a yet-to-be- released climate change bill. &nbsp;According to Roll Call: &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollcall.com\/news\/45474-1.html?mostemailed=1\" target=\"_hplink\">The effort, which Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) is spearheading, is designed to coincide with Senate introduction of a climate change proposal next week and the upcoming annual summer spike in gas prices that inevitably results in a message war on Capitol Hill over which party is to blame for higher prices at the pump. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wow. &nbsp;Really? &nbsp;An entire destructive operation dubbed &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/mediamattersaction.org\/search\/tag\/american_energy_solutions_group\" target=\"_hplink\">American Energy Solutions Group<\/a>&#8221; to take down a bill no one has seen? &nbsp;What kind of &#8220;solution&#8221; is that? &nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On April 26, a bipartisan group of forward-leaning Senators &#8211; John Kerry, D-Mass., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joe Lieberman, I-Ct., &#8211; will roll out <a href=\"http:\/\/switchboard.nrdc.org\/blogs\/ljohnson\/kerrygrahamlieberman_kgl_compr.html\" target=\"_hplink\">comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation<\/a>. The bill is still under wraps, but done right, a climate and energy bill can put Americans back to work, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and create a healthier future for us all. &nbsp;The three Senators deserve enormous credit for their work to craft a bill, but instead the far right is trying to kill their work before it even sees the light of day. <\/p>\n<p>We need a bill that will create two million good-paying jobs for American workers, and position American businesses for decades of success in the growing global clean energy marketplace. A successful bill would cut our oil imports in half and strike a blow against climate change, the most pressing environmental challenge of our time. &nbsp;We will see if this bill gets there on Monday. &nbsp;Those gearing up to bring it down should read it along with the rest of us. <\/p>\n<p>I went to elementary school in Kentucky. &nbsp;Like children from across the country, I learned a lot about the history there. &nbsp;One thing that has stuck with me is their state motto, &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_Kentucky_state_symbols\" target=\"_hplink\">United We Stand, Divided We Fall<\/a>.&#8221; &nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>The state of American politics seems to be in a bit of a free fall and this latest move by extremests &#8211; or as the kids these days like to say &#8220;haters&#8221; &#8211; before even seeing a bill just underscores what a ridiculous free fall we are in. When will political points lose out to meaningful policy that addresses a real need? <\/p>\n<p>Even if you don&#8217;t believe in climate change, there are a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nrdcactionfund.org\/blog\/Why-Climate-Change-Deniers-Should-Still-Support-Green-Energy.html\" target=\"_hplink\">million reasons<\/a> to put our country on a clean energy path. &nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>You would think that a crowd called the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gop.gov\/energysummit\" target=\"_hplink\">American Energy Solutions Group<\/a>&#8221; would get that. &nbsp;The only &#8220;solution&#8221; they seem to be looking for is gridlock. &nbsp;I hope that they realize the damage that their selfish and short-sighted propaganda is doing to our country. &nbsp;<br \/>\n<br \/>United we stand, divided we fall. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Heather Taylor-Miesle is the director of the <a href=\"http:\/\/nrdcactionfund.org\/\" target=\"_hplink\">NRDC Action Fund<\/a>. Become a fan on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nrdcactionfund\" target=\"_hplink\">Facebook<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/NRDC_AF\" target=\"_hplink\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today we learn that the far-right have launched a new operation to attack a yet-to-be- released climate change bill. &nbsp;According to Roll Call: &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollcall.com\/news\/45474-1.html?mostemailed=1\" target=\"_hplink\">The effort, which Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) is spearheading, is designed to coincide with Senate introduction of a climate change proposal next week and the upcoming annual summer spike in gas prices that inevitably results in a message war on Capitol Hill over which party is to blame for higher prices at the pump. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4690,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[4966,8482,1345,8706],"class_list":["post-11567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-4966","tag-8482","tag-1345","tag-8706"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-30z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4690"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}