Brown Dog Dems to Obama: Watch Your Step in Copenhagen
Watch your step Obama.
A group of industrial-state Democrats are the latest senators to realize that they can hold legislation hostage because President Obama needs every vote to pass any bill.
The nine industrial-state senators, the Brown-Dog caucus, sent Obama a letter this morning laying out their requirements for any bill or international treaty to curb climate change. It’s food for thought as Obama heads to Copenhagen.
The letter is after the jump.
The letter, from Pennsylvania’s Arlen Spector, Michigan’s Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, North Carolina’s Kay Hagan, Alaska’s Mark Begich, South Dakota’s Tim Johnson and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, lays out 10 principles “to protect against the twin risks of climate change and costly, but ineffective, action”.
They promote emissions reductions of 80 percent for developed nations by 2050 and action that is cost effective and provides energy security. But there is a protectionist streak that runs through the principles, including respect for intellectual property rights and penalties for nations that don’t ratify or comply with emissions standards.
All of these demands make sense, but adhering to them will make it difficult, for example, for negotiators to extract promises from India, which wants open access to cleantech intellectual property.
