Global Warming Legislation
I’m all with Mike on the need for a “death tax”-like name for global warming. While we’re working on it, Congress could make fast progress with some “Patriot Act”-like legisation titles. With 2007 predicted to be the warmest year ever and Al Gore chasing an Oscar, the timing couldn’t be better. My suggestion to the new leadership of both houses is that they cue up a series of bills, aimed to be enacted at regular intervals--maybe one a month--each titled with a variation on the same basic name. I’m not sure what the name should be, but it probably ought to be something scary but optimistic, and not too Greenpeace. One possibility might be “The Natural Disaster Prevention ____________ Act of 200_.” Thus, for example, “The Natural Disaster Prevention Power Plants Act of 2007,” “The Natural Disaster Prevention Renewable Energy Act of 2007,” “The Natural Disaster Prevention Oil Importation Act of 2007,” etc. The Republicans might manage to kill some of it in the Senate, and the President might veto everything that made it to his desk, but as long as the proposed legislation stayed “on message,” it could push the debate in the right direction and keep the bad guys on the defensive.
2 Comments:
At 8:14 AM,
Jamison Colburn said…
I like it, except that the "Natural" part is a little weak and probably not correct! Katrina was a manmade disaster and so will most others be if they are caused by our engineered atmosphere!
At 9:29 AM,
Craig J. Albert said…
It was back in the eighties that the Republicans decided that they needed to get getter PR in naming their proposed legislation. They got tired the Democrats penning of cool and evocative names, like the Voting Rights Act and the Clean Water Act, in contrast with not-so-cool Republican-sponsored legislation like FIFRA. (That's the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, for those keeping score at home.)
David, you do need to go back to the drawing board, though, with the "natural" stuff. You need a catchy acronym now, and not a lame one like the ones that are in vogue now, like USA-PATRIOT and CAN-SPAM.
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