Global Warming In The News

California Representative touts Congress' environmental record and raises money for Democrats

By Asher Price
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., praised the steps that Austin has taken to curb energy consumption during a stop Monday at City Hall.

Pelosi — in town for a fundraiser at which she met some of the state's top Democratic givers and thanked U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, for his support — said that clean energy programs at the University of Texas and the City of Austin's role in encouraging the use of hybrid vehicles made the city a model for the rest of the country.

"The boast of a clean energy capital of the nation is a very legitimate one," Pelosi said.

She stood alongside Doggett and city officials to tout the passage of House energy bills that give incentives for hybrids and invest in renewable energy technology.

The House legislation would establish a $4,000 plug-in hybrid vehicle tax credit, as well as tax incentives for biking to work. It would repeal tax breaks for oil companies and establish new energy-efficiency standards on household appliances.

Doggett helped craft the plug-in hybrid language, shore up a tax credit for small biofuel producers and raise thresholds for the amount of renewable energy that private utilities must generate, his office said.

Similar legislation passed the Senate. The two houses may have to broker a compromise.

Issues of climate change are "as local as a neighborhood and as global as the planet," Pelosi said.

Earlier this year, Pelosi sounded optimistic that Congress could come up with a bill to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide, one of the greenhouse gases that have been blamed for global warming. But at Austin City Hall, she said she did not think that such regulation would be taken up until the next session.

"There's some impatience" among environmentalists, said Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas, "but at the same time, the concern is that Congress get it right because of the fear that if they rush through and pass a weak bill, it would forestall any future action" on climate change.

Doggett said Congress remains far ahead of last year's Republican-controlled House on climate change despite the lack of a carbon dioxide measure.

"Last session, there was no discussion about climate change," he said. "This has been a reorientation of the House."

At a Sunday evening fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at the house of former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes, Pelosi briefed a crowd of about 150 people on congressional goings-on, including discussions about investments in alternative fuels and exit strategies for Iraq, said former Land Commissioner Garry Mauro, who attended the reception.

At the reception, Pelosi singled out Doggett for being the first member of Texas' congressional delegation to endorse her in the race for the speaker's seat, earning him a special place in the House leadership, Mauro said.

A reception invitation said guests could attend with donations starting at $1,000. To join the"Speaker's Cabinet" took a donation of $28,500. (The DCCC did not release how much money the event raised.)

Pelosi makes occasional trips to Texas; a daughter and grandchildren live in Houston.

Originally conceived as a fundraiser, the Austin visit became part of issues trips she makes across the country, sometimes accompanied by fundraisers, said spokesmen in Doggett's and Pelosi's offices.

This month, she talked about technological innovation in Youngstown, Ohio; in late September, she visited the Philadelphia area to talk about cleaner energy and job creation; and in mid-August, she went to Phoenix to talk about health care for veterans, said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi.

By Monday afternoon, she was in Miami to talk about children's health care.

asherprice@statesman.com