President Obama pledged in a speech today at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania “to work on getting the votes necessary to pass a comprehensive energy and climate bill out of Congress, legislation the White House believes should have more support due to the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which BP has so far failed to stop,” MSNBC reports.
In calling for a renewed focus on a "clean energy future" he says will create jobs, the president stressed the need to increase the energy efficiency of automobiles, businesses and homes, tap the nation’s natural gas reserves, expand the fleet of nuclear power plants, roll back tax breaks to oil companies and put a price on carbon pollution — something energy legislation that passed the House of Representatives last year seeks to do. The Senate has yet to pass its version of the bill, but Obama said he planned to change that.
"The votes may not be there right now, but I intend to find them in the coming months," he told the crowd of some 300 people. "I will continue to make the case for a clean energy future wherever and whenever I can; I will work with anyone from either party to get this done and we will get this done."
Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), authors of the “Senate’s comprehensive energy independence and climate change legislation,” praised the President’s promise to find more votes on the bill in a press release today.
“President Obama is clearly putting his shoulder to the wheel to pass comprehensive climate and energy legislation this year. Nothing could be more definitive than his explicit commitment today to find the remaining votes needed to pass this vital legislation.
“Today marks four times in just the last twelve days that the President has thumped the bully pulpit to urge Senate action. We share the President’s determination to pass this critical bill so that our nation can begin to move toward a clean energy future. The tragic events in the Gulf underscore the need to move without haste to ensure, as the President eloquently stated, that ‘the next generation will not be held hostage to energy sources from the last century.’ This is clearly a moment demanding bi-partisan action. It can attract votes on both sides of the aisle. It’s good policy and good politics both. We have to leverage this moment to get the American Power Act passed this year.”
(credit image – daylife/getty)
Congress in Your Pocket
There’s a big hole in President’s logic and the Senators’ legislation –
Only 2% of cars sold in US during the last decade were electric or hybrid –. 98% need petroleum to stay on the road –