Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA)

Undaunted by the death of climate legislation in the Senate this summer, U.S. Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) vows to reintroduce comprehensive legislation next year and guarantees its passage within a few years. “We have a responsibility to the rest of the world,” Markey says, “most of the CO2 which is up there is red white and blue.” Markey, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, concedes that events in the spring, including the health care reform push and Deepwater Horizon disaster, conspired to distract attention nationally from the importance of climate legislation. But its demise was assured, he says, when Republican Senate leaders used the threat of filibuster “as a way of engaging in obdurate, obstinate opposition to this legislation passing – and time was their friend.” Markey also urges Californians to defeat Proposition 23. “You cannot lose this issue out here. It’s an imperative for you to beat back these two Texas oil companies. If you win here, I think we can win everywhere. If they lose here, they can lose everywhere.”

This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on August 13, 2010

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