Democrats turn to lower-profile projects to combat global warming

[rodeodance]

http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/articles?id=0064

Los Angeles Times: Priority changes on green policies; Democrats in Congress turn to lower-profile projects to combat global warming and aim to boost funding 33%.

08/21/2007

By Richard Simon

Washington -- Reflecting a shift in priorities under the Democratic majority, Congress is moving to spend as much as $6.7 billion next fiscal year to combat global warming, an increase of nearly one-third from the current year.

House appropriations bills call for about $2 billion in new spending on initiatives aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and oil dependency, significantly expanding the budgets for numerous federal research initiatives and launching some new ones.

While legislation to raise vehicle miles-per-gallon standards and cap emissions from power plants has been slower moving -- because of resistance from some lawmakers -- Democrats have turned to the budget to advance their environmental priorities by increasing spending on a variety of lower-profile programs.

That is likely to set up a showdown this fall between Congress and President Bush, who wants to spend less on climate-change initiatives. The White House budget office, which has criticized excessive spending in the overall appropriations bills, noted that the president's proposed budget provides for a 3% increase in spending for climate-change activities.

[OneBlueSky]

1. some years from now, the failure of the Congress and the president to tackle global warming . . .

head-on will be seen as one of the greatest catastrophes in the history of the planet . . .