Poor Outlook for Climate Change Legislation Under Obama

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0419/1224268630412.html

Don’t count on the U.S. making progress on a climate change bill anytime soon:
“The author of a book on climate change says the US is unlikely to pass legislation this year, writes Frank McDonald , Environment Editor

NOT EVEN a “watered down” version of the climate change and energy Bill before the US Senate is likely to be passed this year because of “entrenched opposition from deniers and sceptics”, according to American author Howard Friel.

Friel, who spoke at a Trinity Week event in Trinity College Dublin on the theme What will the world be like in 10 years’ time? said in an interview with The Irish Times that he had also lost faith in President Barack Obama’s ability to set the climate agenda in the US.”

Anyone who actually expects Obama to make effective progress on climate change is overly optimistic. The healthcare debate showed just how easy it is to work up the oppositions and fill their minds with imaginary fears. Both sides of the aisle agreed there were problems with the healthcare system but the division was so deep that it led to fierce debate. Imagine then, the opposition that will be born as a result of a government proposal to combat a threat many believe to be a hoax. I haven’t lost faith in Obama on climate change, I’m not sure I had it in the first place.