Kerry, Markey, Others Call for Action on Climate Change Legislation
CLIMATE
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Danny Lauridsen
Boston University Washington News Service
3-21-07
WASHINGTON, March 21 – U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Medford) joined members of Congress from across the country Tuesday to call for legislation to slow climate change and tighten energy emissions standards.
The legislators gathered to address a conservationist rally timed for the first day of spring. Basking in weather fair enough for short sleeves, a few hundred demonstrators turned out on the Capitol’s west lawn for “Climate Crisis Action Day,” including three in full-body polar bear suits and dozens carrying signs that read “Cool the planet, save the Arctic.”
“We deserve a government that accepts science and facts,” Mr. Kerry said, garnering the loudest applause of the day.
Mr. Markey, whom House Speaker Nancy P. Pelosi (D-Calif.) recently named chairman of the new Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said he will use his new position to bring climate change legislation to the congressional forefront.
“What a difference a day makes,” he said, referring to the 2006 elections in which the Democrats took control of Congress. He added that a year ago, under Republican leadership, global warming was not considered a major issue.
“This is an incredible moment in American political history,” he said. “Either we are going to solve this problem or we will destroy the planet. The time to act is now, and you are the change.”
Mr. Markey joked that as a 30-year member of both the Energy and Commerce Committee and the Natural Resources Committee, he has been going to hearings on climate change for 60 years.
He assured the crowd that his experience has led him to one conclusion about President Bush’s position on climate change: “On every one of those issues, you are right, and he is wrong,” he said.
He added, “What a difference it would have made, ladies and gentlemen, if instead of George Bush, John Kerry was now sitting down in the White House.”
Sens. Barbara L. Boxer (D-Calif.) and Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), who co-authored what they called the most progressive climate change bill in the Senate, spoke on behalf of their bill.
“The government of America belongs to all the people and not just big oil, big coal and special-interest organizations,” Mr. Sanders said. “We can turn our country and the entire world in a brand new direction. We can do that.”
He added, “This is the challenge of our lifetimes. Let’s go forward together.”
Ms. Boxer, who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee,, also referred to the change in party leadership in Congress, saying that while former Chairman James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) adamantly denied the existence of global warming, she has introduced it as a prominent issue in the committee and has invited former Vice President Al Gore to speak to the committee Wednesday.
Mr. Kerry, who has characterized the climate change bill he co-authored with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) as a more realistic approach than the Boxer-Sanders bill, acknowledged that scientists he has spoken with recently are now calling for more drastic changes in emissions requirements.
“This has been a long journey for all of us,” Mr. Kerry said. “Let’s get this job done.”
-30-
