Just as important as it is for Obama to move forward in addressing climate change,
an arguably more significant change has occurred in the US House of Representatives.
The chairman of the US House of Rep. Committee on Energy and Commerce will be replaced in the new Congress in January. John Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan (Car capitol of the US) will be replaced by Henry Waxman, a Democrat from the Los Angeles area ( Hollywood, Santa Monica, Malibu, Beverly Hills area). Being the representative of this area, it is not surprising that he will push for major Climate Change policies and given who he represents in Congress (including Gov. Schwarzenegger) it would not surprise me if the legislation he pushes has a strong resemblance to California's Climate Change laws. We should expect policies that are much more aggressive with Waxman as chairman than if Dingell had been left in charge.
To explain how significant this is to those who are not students of the workings of US Governmemt, just because a president and Congress are of one party, doesn't mean that a president gets his legislation passed. And our Congresswomen/men are very independent and respond to the needs of their constituents (the auto industry & unions in Dingell's case) most of the time.
In Congressional machinations, committee chairmen have enormous power. They determine what legislation proceeds to the full floor of the House and if it doesn't get to the floor of the House, it won't get to the Pres. The change in leadership of this committee is a major shift in power in Washington in terms of what kind of legislation that will occur to address climate change. It is quite rare that a Congressman with the longest seniority (Dingell) gets replaced as head of a committee he wants to lead.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/us/politics/21dingell.html?hp
As we say in California - shift happens. This time it is a great shift.
-robin
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