Kate Sheppard reports on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act:
After a contentious mark-up process and narrow passage out of the Environment and Public Works Committee in December, debate over climate legislation is heating up again as the committee chair, Sen. Barbara Boxer, works to round up votes to get the bill passed this spring. If Friends of the Earth has any say, the biggest threat to her crusade might not be the GOP, but the environmental community itself. Most major environmental groups agree that Lieberman-Warner's emissions reduction targets and plan for allocating carbon credits are far from ideal, yet the groups are split on the best method for achieving strong legislation. And the fact that environmental groups are already deeply divided before the legislation even hits the floor presents serious questions about whether the climate is right for Congressional action on global warming.
"There's no question that this is an urgent issue, and we've got to move quickly on it," said Nick Berning, press secretary for Friends of the Earth. "It's so urgent that we might not get another chance to get it right."
Much of the divide between these environmental organizations lies in what they view as the best strategy for getting strong climate legislation in place -- pass something weaker now and build on it, or push for the gold standard and nothing less. This is nothing new; environmental groups have long differed over strategy. But this is the first time that these differences are playing out in such a public way.
Read the rest, (and comment) here.
--The Editors
