Dems epic Keystone troll: Proposed amendment asks Senators to acknowledge climate

change
If GOPers want their pipeline bill, they'll have to go on the record as climate
deniers
LINDSAY ABRAMS Follow
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TOPICS: KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE, SENATE REPUBLICANS, CLIMATE CHANGE DENIALISM, SEN.
BERNIE SANDERS, CLIMATE CHANGE, SUSTAINABILITY NEWS, NEWS, POLITICS NEWS
Dems' epic Keystone troll: Proposed amendment asks Senators to acknowledge clima
te change
Mitch McConnell (Credit: Reuters/Joshua Roberts/AP/Tony Gutierrez/Photo montage
by Salon)
The Senate advanced its big Keystone XL pipeline bill Monday night in a 63-32 vo
te (10 Democrats and one Independent were in favor), opening it up for debate an
d for additional amendments
which Senators on both sides of the aisle are invite
d to propose. And boy, are they taking advantage of that.
President Obama has already threatened to veto the bill when it all but inevitab
ly lands on his desk. But in the meantime, Democrats who oppose the pipeline are
taking advantage of the open-amendment process
which the bill s sponsors say coul
d help it overcome the veto to introduce some changes that, strategically, will
make it harder for Republicans to endorse it, but that also come off as some pre
tty clever trolling.
Bernie Sanders emerges as master of the latter: according to the Hill, the Indep
endent Senator plans to offer a non-binding resolution on the scientific consens
us that climate change is real and caused by human activity. The Washington Post
got its hands on a copy of the resolution, in which Senators will be asked to in
dicate whether or not they agree with the following:
It is the sense of Congress that Congress is in agreement with the opinion of vi
rtually the entire worldwide scientific community and a growing number of top na
tional security experts, economists, and others that
(1) climate change is real;
(2) climate change is caused by human activities;
(3) climate change has already caused devastating problems in the United States
and around the world; and
(4) it is imperative that the United States transform its energy system away fro
m fossil fuels and toward energy efficiency and sustainable energy.
A far cry, in other words, from the standard I m not a scientist non-answer
they d ins
tead be going on the record as flat-out climate deniers. It s not going to be forgo
tten by history, Sanders told the Times. They re going to be asking: Did you not hea
r what the scientific community all over the world is saying
that climate change
is the most serious environmental crisis facing this planet?