House Democrat introduces climate bill that would actually help climate
For all the buzz about global warming in the U.S. popular press of late, the few pieces of legislation that have made their way to the halls of Congress have been woefully inadequate (of course, even those have failed to pass). But last week, to little fanfare, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) introduced the Safe Climate Act — a bill that would actually reduce greenhouse-gas emissions as much as scientists say we need to in order to avoid catastrophic, irreversible changes to the climate. The bill would require the U.S. to slash carbon dioxide emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 — about 2 percent a year from 2011 until 2020, about 5 percent a year after that. Rumor has it that Sens. James Jeffords (I-Vt.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) will introduce the bill, or something similar, in the Senate. Where it will fail. But still.
