Up in the Air

By Bill Polits

You had to be sitting under a rock the past two weeks not to know that the UNFCCC’s Copenhagen conference was an embarrassing failure for everyone concerned with climate change and the regulation of greenhouse gases world-wide – so I won’t go into any detail about that here.

It’s clear though that the chance of any kind of meaningful climate legislation from Washington has received a huge kick in the gut as a result. Even though the largest swatch of big business in the US wants meaningful binding emissions targets so that they can do accurate long-term investment planning, there is a strong congressional coalition of coal-dependent senators who strongly oppose such legislation. Their voice has gotten stronger now that China has refused to play ball on curbing emissions.

And as if that weren’t enough of an uphill battle for the senate’s S. 1733 (Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act), the current party-line division in the US senate over health care legislation makes it exceptionally difficult for the Democratic leaders of the senate to win essential Republican votes to pass this green energy and climate change bill.

The Impact on Fire Safety

There is no denying that the failure of international efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions has greatly lessened the chances of new regulations that would affect the availability of fire extinguishants coming into law any time soon. We’ll know more as the wheel of time turns further in 2010.

Happy Holidays and best wishes for a great New Year from everyone at H3R!