Attorney Authored
Avoiding Ghosts of Christmases Yet to Be
August 21, 2009
Tom Mounteer
Just as when comprehensive climate change legislation reached the floor of the U.S. Senate in the fall of 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives passage of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill (officially H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act) gave hope to supporters of comprehensive federal legislation.
The Climate Security Act of 2008 (S. 3036), introduced in May 2008, by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), made it to the floor of the Senate only to fall prey to proponents inability to rally 60 votes to end opponents filibuster.
Given the competing demands of the Barack Obama Administrations legislative agenda, not the least of which is enactment of comprehensive health care reform, it was impressive that House leadership was able to get the Waxman-Markey bill through as quickly as it did. Some last-minute horse-trading made that possible.