Pirate's Cove

The other day is was Joe Lieberman who took this tactic, while also forgetting to mention what measures he’s taking in his own life. Now we have Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) giving it a whirl

Successfully fighting climate change requires the support of both parties

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 contains Congress’s largest investment to date to deal with climate change. It passed without a single Republican vote. Before this, Congress’s most significant effort was in 2009 with enactment of ARRA (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) during the first month of President Obama’s first term. No House Republican voted for the ARRA, and only three Republican senators did.

It wasn’t always this way.

When climate change first appeared on the national agenda the commitment to deal with it was bipartisan. At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, President George H. W. Bush stated the U.S. position: “Let me be clear on one fundamental point. The United States fully intends to be the world’s preeminent leader in protecting the global environment. We have been that for many years. We will remain so.”

We’ve also learned quite a bit more about it being a complete scam. Back in 1992 I believed, and back in 1992 people weren’t utter fanatics pushing hardcore Modern Socialist policies on the subject

Before 2010, some Republican members of Congress provided leadership to deal with climate change. In 2003, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), with Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), took the lead in introducing the first major bill on the issue in the Senate. In 2007, three Republicans (Ted Stevens of Alaska, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania), joined me and three other Democrats in introducing the Low Carbon Economy Act. It proposed to set up a cap-and-trade system, but without all the complexity included in the House-passed bill.

Mentioning super squishy Republicans who were always happy to help out Democrats is not the best idea.

But opposition to dealing with climate change became a litmus test for Republicans seeking their party’s nomination in the 2010 midterm election campaigns. In June 2009, the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill passed in the Democratic-controlled House. To defeat the legislation, the Koch brothers, through Americans for Prosperity, worked with others from the fossil fuel industry to galvanize members of the tea party to oppose the bill. They succeeded. The bill died in the Senate in the face of a threatened Republican-led filibuster.

Yes, yes it did become a litmus test. If you want to implement measures that do not increase taxation and fees and cost of living, ones that decrease freedom, liberty, and life choices, yeah, we’re going to oppose them. I’m pretty sure most Skeptic are just fine with moving towards cleaner energy methods…I’ve said many times I am not a fan of coal, and would love to reduce petroleum, which is dirty (not talking about CO2)….and I’m not against hybrids and EVs. I’m against using governmental force. Especially when the people like Bingamen pushing this stuff are a) not negatively impacted because they’re rich, and b) always fail to mention their own actions in their own lives. Bingamen forgets to mention his own.

Much more needs to be done. In Congress Democrats should not be the only ones committed to protecting the global environment. Until Republicans also are willing to support constructive policies to address climate change, our efforts to reduce emissions to stabilize the climate will continue to fall short.

Republicans are fine doing things for real environmental issues. ‘Climate change’ is not one, and, why does it always have to be Republicans who comply? Why do Democrats never have to give something? It’s very much a cult: you must follow our Beliefs or you’re Evil.