waxman bill
Guest Blog: An Urgent Update and Message on Waxman-Markey
24/06/09 14:38
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Guest Blog: A National "Climate Service"?
19/06/09 18:08
Paul Fleming works on
freshwater climate adaptation issues for the
US City of
Seattle, Washington. Seattle obtains
much of its water from large rivers, and much of
that water during the summer and fall is derived
from the melting of annual snowpack — a
process that is shifting rapidly as a result of
climate change.
Among his other
responsibilities, Paul helps the city’s water
supply utility think about how to manage their
water resources in fiscally prudent, flexible
ways, given that Seattle’s “normal” climate is
altering rapidly. In early May, Paul spoke
before the U.S. Congress in regard to the
Waxman/Markey bill (discussed in several
previous blogs here, most recently
here)
about the need for a National Climate Service —
modeled in part on the existing National Weather
Service. Such a group would likely
focus on delivering analytical services for how
climate is changing in critical parameters in
particular regions — an excellent idea,
which would be a great boon for facilitating and
groundtruthing climate adaptation efforts. Below
is his statement, as well as the statement of
marine biologist Jane
Lubchenco, who is now the head
of NOAA, which is the agency that
would host both the Weather Service and the
Climate Service. Many thanks to Paul for
supplying his remarks! — JM
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NEWS: Crypto-Adaptation Legislation Leaves Committee
22/05/09 11:31
Late last night, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy Committee (the so-called Waxman committee, named after Henry Waxman, the current chair) managed to push an important climate change bill (usually referred to as the Waxman/Markey bill, after the sponsors of the legislation) out of the committee so the rest of the House can vote on it. This particular bill, discussed in an earlier entry here, is exclusively discussed in the media as a carbon cap and trade bill, but I believe it’s most noteworthy as the first climate adaptation bill to be considered in the U.S. Given the almost complete lack of coverage of this aspect of the bill’s language (representing roughly a fifth of the original bill’s word count), I can only imagine that the media doesn’t understand the implications of an adaptation bill. Getting out of committee is a critical step and was full of a lot of political drama. To those of you unfamiliar with U.S. federal legislative procedures (happy people that you are), a piece of legislation (a “bill”) has to get out of its designated committee before it can be considered by the whole of the House. And getting approved by the House is not final either: the US Senate has to move bills through committees before reaching the floor of the Senate too. Then there is a joining process to merge the House and Senate versions. And then the president has to sign the bill. Many a slip remains, but this move shows some progress in pushing the U.S. towards engaging in a serious conversation about climate adaptation. Read More...
