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With a razor-thin margin of just seven votes, the House of Representatives on Friday evening passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act - the first bill to put a fixed and declining cap on U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions. Republicans and Democrats in the House spent much of the day sparring in sharp language over the bill, which will reduce U.S. carbon emissions 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83% below by 2050. In the end, the vote of 219 to 212 included more than 40 Democrats who broke ranks with their party's leadership to vote against...
...minute push to snap wavering Democrats back in line - and a landmark for the environmental movement. "The American Clean Energy and Security Act is the most important environmental and energy legislation in our nation's history," said Fred Krupp, the president of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). "Today's vote is a huge achievement for the country and the climate." (Watch TIME's video: "The Truth About Wind Power...
...Thursday Democrats were feeling pretty good about the vote, though leaders acknowledged that it would be close. "I don't know that we'll get 218 hard yeses ahead of time, but there's a sense that once you put it on the floor the votes will be there," said Representative Mike Doyle, a Democrat who represents a steel-manufacturing district in western Pennsylvania. Doyle was initially leery of the bill, but was brought around by concessions from Energy & Commerce Committee chairman Henry Waxman. Those changes and other last-minute compromises made to appease Agriculture Committee chairman Collin Peterson...
More than anyone on Capitol Hill, Pelosi has staked her reputation on the bill, which would require a 17% reduction of greenhouse gases by 2020 from 2005 levels and about an 80% reduction by midcentury. A failed vote could be devastating to her embattled speakership. Pelosi spent much of Wednesday and Thursday cajoling her members on the phone, in meetings, on the House floor during votes, even following a member into the Speaker's lobby - the domain of the press - to make her case in full view of a pack of reporters. She also met with seven GOP moderates...
...would imagine that such a delicately crafted, Senate-like compromise would stand a good chance in the Senate. A bipartisan climate-change bill failed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate last year by a vote of 54-36, and the Democrats have gained at least seven seats since then. But if it was tough to convince rural House Democrats, winning over Senators from farm states, who carry much more relative power than their House counterparts, will be even harder. And if the House compromise made many prominent groups unhappy, one can only imagine what feelings the sausagemaking...