Change Of Seasons

The Senate is starting to take a serious look at climate change this week with three days of hearings scheduled by the Environment and Public Works Committee.

Obama and Democrats in Congress are pursuing legislation that would create a "cap and trade" system requiring utilities and industries to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases associated with global warming over the next 40 years. Companies would have to obtain dwindling numbers of pollution permits from the government and hundreds of dollars worth of permits could be traded on a new financial market exchange.

Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer hopes to finish reviewing the legislation and vote on it in coming weeks.

If so, that could be the last major action by the Senate on climate change legislation this year, before countries from around the world meet in Copenhagen in December to try to chart new, tougher goals for reducing carbon emissions to head off worsening droughts, floods and melting polar ice.

U.S. leadership is considered essential to the global talks, since the United States is the leading carbon polluter among developing countries.

At the United Nations on Monday, a senior official lowered expectations of a deal in Copenhagen. Janos Pasztor, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's climate advisor, said the UN head was planning for "post-Copenhagen" talks.

Most Senate Republicans oppose the cap and trade bill, saying it would force U.S. companies to move more manufacturing abroad while also raising consumers' energy prices.

High-ranking Senator Lamar Alexander, one of the few Republicans to declare that "climate change is real," said that during this week's hearings, he and his fellow Republicans on the committee will offer an alternative to cap and trade.

"Before we embark upon a scheme that would send jobs overseas and charge Americans hundreds of billions of dollars a year in new taxes ... we might look for another solution," Alexander told reporters.

No doubt that alternative is tax cuts on big oil and coal companies, right? And for the record, we've already moved most of our manufacturing abroad, you jagoffs.

Still, it's a definite start. Hopefully a bill can be put together in Congress in the next few months.

[UPDATE 9:55 AM] A new CNN poll shows overwhelming support for cap-and-trade legislation, 60%-37%.

The survey indicates a generational divide, with 68 percent of Americans under age 50 supporting "cap and trade" but those 50 and older split on the issue.

"This is one more example of the growing generation gap that is shaping politics and policy in this country," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Younger Americans voted for Obama and tend to welcome change. Older Americans were less enamored of change in the 2008 election and senior citizens were the only age group that voted for John McCain."

The poll also suggests a partisan divide, with three in four Democrats backing the proposal and nearly six in 10 independents on board as well, but only four in 10 Republicans supporting "cap and trade."

Four in 10, gosh. I wonder when they're going to be kicked out of the Republican Party for that heresy...