Friends of the Earth has been running a campaign for months to convince senators to oppose the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act if it’s not significantly improved.
“The Lieberman-Warner bill comes nowhere close to doing what scientists say we must to have a shot at avoiding catastrophic outcomes,” said FOE President Brent Blackwelder in a statement last week. “It is a wholly inadequate response to the greatest environmental crisis of our time.”
The group issued a list of specific concerns on Friday, pointing out that:
- The bill is short of the IPCC’s targets for emissions reductions, and is “unlikely to reduce emissions at all until year 2025.”
- The bill still gives half a trillion dollars to polluters by handing out carbon credits free of charge rather than auctioning them.
- Support for the bill isn’t all that strong among some Democrats — Sens. Clinton and Obama have put out stronger plans as presidential candidates.
- The presidential election in November gives hope that 2009 will provide a climate (ahem) more conducive to strong legislation.
- Folks in the House have circulated tougher bills.
FOE will continue to lobby for measures to improve the bill next week, as will most of the big green groups. They’ve been much more vocal, however, in calling for the bill to be canned if it’s not significantly changed.
