BusinessGreen
03 Jun 2010

Obama promises to throw full weight behind climate bill, “The votes may not be there right now, but I intend to find them in the coming months”
By: James Murray

President Barack Obama yesterday vowed to intervene personally to secure the Senate votes needed to pass US climate change legislation this year in a speech that attempted to harness the environmental crisis in the Gulf of Mexico to make the case for a low carbon economy.

Speaking to an audience of 300 academics and business leaders at Carnegie Mellon University, Obama said he would do everything in his power to secure the passage of the American Power Act unveiled last month by Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, despite predictions the bill will struggle to win the Republican support necessary to secure 60 votes on the Senate floor.

“If we refuse to take into account the full cost of our fossil fuel addiction - if we don’t factor in the environmental costs and national security costs and true economic costs - we will have missed our best chance to seize a clean energy future,” he said. “The votes may not be there right now, but I intend to find them in the coming months… we will get this done. The next generation will not be held hostage to energy sources from the last century.”

The move follows several months during which environmental groups have expressed frustration at the White House’s apparent reluctance to throw the same level of support behind climate change legislation as it provided as a part of the historic effort to pass healthcare reforms.

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