http://www.salon.com/2014/11/14/congress_is_about_to_sabotage_obamas_historic_climate_deal/
(Credit: Reuters/Yuri Gripas/David McNew)
If you want to understand why the China-U.S. climate deal announced this week is going to be hard to meet, and if you want to understand why the Democratic Party is such an annoying institution, meet Tom Carper, Democratic senator from Delaware.
Tom Carper is very happy with the president’s climate deal with China. “Yesterday’s climate change agreement with China is yet another example that when the United States takes a leadership role in addressing our greatest global environmental challenges – other countries will follow,” he explained, which is the kind of self-satisfied vacuity Washington folks routinely utter. (Anyone who thinks the U.S. has taken a leadership position in addressing climate change needs to reconsider the last quarter century).
But here’s his real folly: Later the same day Carper announced he would vote in favor of the Keystone Pipeline, because he’s had “enough already” of the fight waged by more environmental activists than on any issue in a generation. “He is hopeful that moving forward with this bipartisan bill will pave the way for Congress to work together on other measures to increase our energy independence while also addressing the real environmental and public health threats we face from greenhouse gas pollution,” said a Carper spokeswoman.
His rallying cry: “Let’s clear the decks” by giving the GOP what it wants on Keystone.
…(read more).
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Environment Ethics
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