New Global Warming Report Gets Subdued Reception

Posted by: Steve LeVine on June 17

The White House’s release of a fresh global warming report seemed likely to generate a volcano of political rancor. The topic is among the most partisan in Washington, and the report was issued amid a highly emotional House debate over a bill to control U.S. carbon emissions, known as “cap and trade.”

And it did. Terry Frank, for instance, calls it a “global warming scam created for the sheer purpose of generating profit and cash for the political class and their allies.”

Yet, compared with past bouts of debate, the “hoax” side of blog debate has appeared surprisingly subdued since yesterday’s release of the 196-page report, which was posted online. Over at Bloomberg, Eric Pooley seemed to see a defining moment: “So you still think global warming is bunk? An eco-Nazi plot to jack up your taxes and control the energy supply? Get over it, my friend. Move on.”

Pooley’s point? Congress, backed by the Obama administration, appears set on cap and trade, a system in which emitters would effectively pay for the right to pollute greenhouse gases. A House bill could be up for a vote as early as next week. In the Senate, the bill may be taken up in August, faster than some predicted.

It still seems unlikely that legislation will be advanced enough to be signed by President Barack Obama before December, when nations meet in Copenhagen to try to hammer out a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

Over at Business Week’s Green Business blog, my colleague Mark Scott writes that not just a U.S. trading system, but a global carbon market, is closer than many think.

Do you think that’s right? Is cap and trade already effectively with us?