The big carbon cap/climate change news in recent weeks came from President Bush, who announced his intention to join with other industrialized nations to set limits on carbon emissions for the years to come. This is truly a sea-change in Bush’s policy – he has previously opposed any kind of limit on carbon emissions, and has been a skeptic on the global warming issue in general.
As positive a step as this was for the administration, however, it drew a chorus of criticism from the usual suspects – leftist environmentalist groups like Greenpeace, Democratic Congressmen like Patrick Kennedy, and liberal journalists like Dana Milbank. They seemed uninterested in the fact that President Bush has just taken a major step in their direction, and used the announcement as just another excuse to bash the President.
On an issue as contentious as carbon limits and climate change, neither side is going to get everything it wants. A compromise is necessary. And I don’t think anyone could argue that conservatives are not trying to compromise on the issue. While many conservative voters, politicians, and business leaders might prefer to take no action to limit carbon emissions, they have heard the call to action and are clearly working toward a cap they can live with.
Democrats, on the other hand, while continually preaching about the necessity of taking immediate action to combat climate change, must be willing to settle for something less than a Kyoto-style agreement. Politics is all about compromise; it’s time for the Democrats to come to the table and help develop a solution that may not be perfect for either side, but is acceptable to everyone, and good for both the U.S. and the world.
This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2007 at 3:08 pm and is filed under Cap and Trade, Climate Change, Politics/Government . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
