Got the following press release sent to me this morning...

Conservationists cheered House passage today of another three wilderness bills, and urged the Senate to take the measures up quickly. The bills, which passed by voice vote, will together protect for all Americans more than 320,000 acres of wild public land in California and New Mexico. From California’s iconic Joshua Trees and Giant Sequoias to New Mexico’s 1,000-foot-deep Canon Largo, more of our natural treasures will stay as they are for future generations, thanks to the action of Congress today.

“The U.S. House of Representatives has today given the ‘gold standard’ of protection to some of the country’s most beautiful places,” said Mike Matz, executive director of the Campaign for America's Wilderness. “Passage of these bipartisan bills today sends a strong signal that even in times of polarization and stalemate, lawmakers are working across party lines to find common ground in protecting our wild land,” said Matz. “We are seeing a real renaissance in wilderness protection in this country.”

The measures passed today are:

* The California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act (H.R. 3682), introduced by Rep. Bono Mack (R-CA), to protect more than 190,000 acres in Riverside County as wilderness, provide wild and scenic protection to 31 miles of four rivers, and expand the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. A companion bill has been introduced by Sen. Boxer (D-CA).
* The Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness Act (H.R. 3022), sponsored by Rep. Costa (D-CA) and Rep. Nunes (R-CA ), will protect 115,000 acres of wilderness in the Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park. Sen. Boxer has sponsored a Senate companion bill.
* The Sabinoso Wilderness Act (H.R. 2632), offered by Rep. Tom Udall (D-NM), would designate more than 15,000 acres in San Miguel County as wilderness.

The House has now cleared five wilderness bills this year (the two others protect land in Oregon and West Virginia), and passed another for wilderness in Virginia last October. Four additional bills, for wilderness in Idaho, Oregon, and Colorado, have cleared the Senate Committee and are awaiting action by the full Senate. A bill creating the Wild Sky Wilderness in Washington State became law last month.

Good, Obama has released a statement on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Change bill. I was a little concerned that he didn't show up to vote for cloture on this bill, but I'll get to that after you read his statement, which is here in full.

“As this week’s debate on climate change has unfolded, the American people and those watching us around the world had every reason to hope that we would act. Every credible scientist and expert believes action is necessary. This is critical and long overdue legislation that represents a good first step in addressing one of the most serious problems facing our generation.

Like many of my Senate colleagues, I believe the legislation could have been made even better. Had there been a substantive Senate debate about some of the concerns with this bill, I believe the outcome could have generated broad support. It certainly would have received my support.

Unfortunately, the Republican leadership in the Senate has chosen to block progress, rather than work in a good faith manner to address this challenge. This is a failure of our politics and a failure of leadership — a President who for years denied the problem, and a Republican nominee, John McCain, who claims leadership on the issue but opposes this bipartisan bill.

We can’t afford more of the same timid politics when the future of our planet is at stake. We are already breaking records with the intensity of our storms, the number of forest fires, and the periods of drought. By 2050, famine could force more than 250 million from their homes. And if we do nothing, sea levels will rise high enough to swallow large portions of every coastal city and town.

This bipartisan legislation establishes an economy-wide cap on greenhouse gas emissions. It helps states, cities, and towns invest in technologies to reduce energy bills for homeowners, increase energy efficiency, construct green buildings, and expand public transit. It invests in green technology to help our automakers to retool and our fossil-fuel industries to become clean. The bill provides real financial relief to working families. Importantly, the bill restores our great nation’s international leadership role, while including provisions to ensure that all major emitting nations also take serious action to solve this global problem.

Let me clear, this bill is not perfect. Emissions reductions must reflect the scientific consensus, which are reductions of at least 80 percent 2050. We must ensure that more middle-class families reap more of the financial benefits created by this bill. And we must direct greater resources to the regions of the country that will bear the brunt of this critical transition to a clean energy economy.

I believe that the American people are ready to lead the world on this issue. The time for distractions, divisions, and excuses is over. The time for new coalitions, informed and civil debate, and a sense of shared purpose is long overdue. As president, I am committed to ensuring that our children and our children’s children can point to this generation as the time when American found its way again.”

The fact that he did show up to vote for cloture is not a great thing, but it's not entirely bad either since there weren't near enough votes for cloture to happen. At best, only 54 Senators would have voted for cloture, which essentially means the same results would have happened with or without Obama.

It's good, however, that he's as conflicted about Lieberman-Warner as a lot of us are. As much as I want a climate change bill to pass, I would prefer a good, solid bill that actually starts us down the correct path over a lukewarm bill that's been watered down and may be difficult to build on down the road.

Perhaps H.R.6186, the Investing in Climate Action and Protection Act introduced by Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts will be more to his liking, and mine as well. We'll see how it plays out, but I don't really expect a major climate change bill to pass until next year.

I mostly like this ad from Friends of the Earth Action, released on Earth Day, slamming John McCain for what will certainly be a disastrous environmental policy should he be elected.

To be fair, I could support nuclear energy if we had a good way to dispose of nuclear waste. That's not a popular position to take, but I do feel that nuclear energy is a good option, but only after we figure out where to store the waste, or find a way to permanently neutralize it.

But that's not the point of the ad. The truth is, John McCain doesn't have a clue about the environment, and never will. Then again, John McCain doesn't have a clue about hardly anything, so what's new.

This is from the FoE Action press release:

“It is outrageous for Senator McCain to portray himself as tough on spending and as a friend of the environment, and then go out and push all this pork for corporate polluters. That’s not straight talk,” said Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth Action. “Instead of adding more pork for the nuclear industry, Senator McCain should be trying to cut the fat that’s already there.”

Blackwelder noted that McCain’s opponents in the presidential campaign, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have voiced support for a different approach to global warming—a cap-and-trade system that makes polluters pay for their pollution via a 100 percent auction of pollution permits. When the Lieberman-Warner bill came before the Senate’s environment and public works committee in December, Clinton offered an amendment to eliminate many of its giveaways by adding 100 percent auctions to the bill. Obama has spoken of his support for 100 percent auctions as a key difference between himself and McCain.

McCain’s attempt to add more polluter pork to the global warming bill is hardly the only recent strike against his environmental record. He also failed to show up for two votes within the last six months that would have promoted clean energy solutions such as wind and solar power; each of those measures failed by a one-vote margin, and the other presidential candidates showed up to vote.

“There is a wide gulf between McCain and the Democratic candidates on environmental issues and global warming,” Blackwelder said. “These ads are calling attention to that gulf with the hope of persuading McCain to start taking the legislative actions that are logically required to erase it. Opposing polluter giveaways in the Lieberman-Warner bill would be a good first step.”

Representative Peter Welch of Vermont submitted a bill on Thursday that would allow California and other states to set create their own laws regarding greenhouse gases and other emissions. The bill, H.R. 5560, was has 58 cosponsors. via Reuters.

A bill was introduced in the House
of Representatives on Thursday that would overturn the
Environmental Protection Agency's decision to prevent
California from limiting the amount of greenhouse gas emissions
spewed by cars.

 

The EPA last December turned down California's request for
a waiver from federal law that would have permitted the state
to cut vehicle carbon dioxide emissions, which when implemented
would have likely have raised the required fuel efficiency of
cars and also fought global warming.

A group of 60 House lawmakers introduced legislation that
would immediately grant California's waiver request and also
clear the way for 12 other states to set vehicle tailpipe
emissions standards.

Some have questioned the legality of the EPA's decision not to allow states to set their own emissions standards, but it's widely believed that nothing will be done to pursue the issue within the executive branch. The question remains whether or not this bill can pass the House and Senate, and if it does, whether or not President Bush will allow it to become law.

The alternative is to wait a year and add this issue to the growing list of issues that our next President is going to have to fix.