The weather this summer is setting records all over the U.S.**   No one can be positive, but the very hot weather, the storms, the incredible amount of moisture in the air — it looks like it’s caused by a very volatile, changing climate.  But our lawmakers see no threat in our incredible weather this year.  They just ended the possibility of climate and energy legislation for 2010.    From the NYT:

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid abandoned efforts to reduce carbon emissions from the nation’s power plants yesterday, marking the first major legislative setback for President Obama, who entered office vowing to address climate change. Reid (D-Nev.) was cornered into the decision after a handful of Democrats and Republicans failed to be swayed by an 18-month effort in Congress to charge… . . . “

It’s easy to correct that sentence  . . . “by the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, caused by fossil fuels.”   Caused by oil and criminal negligence in drilling for it in deeper and deeper water.  Our Congress moves at a glacial pace for many reasons, and in this case, they are not going to address something that is a real crisis — for purely political reasons. They won’t even have a public debate about it. A public debate about climate change and renewable energy versus business as usual is an essential thing for the American public to see because they don’t seem to know much about it. What the public does seem to know about it appears to be based on erroneous information that has come at them from a variety of special interest groups and lobbyists.  That’s why we desperately need this public discussion.

But now we won’t get the bill we need, because our Congress has decided it’s just too risky for their political careers. As I have said before, American politicians care far more for their own careers than anything else, and they have blood on their hands as a result.  Some environmental groups think this is a good idea because now we can 1) expect a better bill (on Planet Utopia, apparently) and 2) the bill would have done more harm than good.  Maybe both things are correct, but now we have nothing, and there is no public discussion.

Do people really think that politicians are going to wise up and do the right thing next year (when we may have a more Republican Congress) if they can’t manage to do it this year, or the year before, or in 2008, or every year for the last three decades? Come on.  This was the year to do it or lose it, and it looks like we lost it.  Congress members cannot think ahead further than the next election cycle, to say nothing of looking ahead 20, 30, 100 years.  They do not think long term.

Now our main hope to do something effective on climate change mitigation is the EPA, and the Republicans are [...]