Obama scores major victory on climate

White House senior adviser David Axelrod said Sunday on ABC's “This Week” that he didn't expect Senate action until the fall. “We're trying to solve a problem that has languished for a decade,” he said.

“I hope it won't pass the Senate,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on “Fox News Sunday,” claiming the measure would lead to “significant increases in electricity across America.”

In the House, Obama was vindicated — at least for now — with his hands-off approach to accomplishing his legislative goals. He prefers to provide broad policy principles on his priorities, leaving the details to Congress.

Obama acknowledged Sunday that he had reservations about a provision that would penalize trade partners that don't work to curb pollution. “At a time when the economy worldwide is still deep in recession and we've seen a significant drop in global trade, I think we have to be very careful about sending any protectionist signals out there,” he told a group of reporters.

Still, he called the bill “an extraordinary first step.”

He temporarily may have put to rest concerns — expressed publicly by Republicans and privately by Democrats — that he's trying to do too much: so many policy changes in the midst of a recession and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Obama has had a string of early successes, the US$787 billion economic stimulus among them.

The climate bill victory was different. It was grander. It had international consequences. It perhaps meant more to Obama than the others.

After ignoring global warming for decades, most leading nations now agree it's an urgent danger. The U.S. public, too, has come to same conclusion in recent years.

The House measure would, for the first time, limit the pollution blamed for global warming while signaling a new commitment to combating global warming. President George W. Bush gave the matter the short shrift.

Remaking the energy industry and curbing global warming have been hallmarks of Obama's platform since he began his presidential campaign in 2007, if not before that.

Sensing the legislation was in trouble early last week, the White House stepped up its involvement.

First, Obama pressed the House to act during a news conference.

Then, the White House held a hastily arranged Rose Garden event Thursday that raised the stakes. Obama pleaded for votes, acknowledged the changed world view on the subject and stressed the opportunity at hand for the United States.

“The nation that leads in the creation of a clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy. Now is the time for the United States of America to realize this as well. And now is the time for us to lead,” he said.

A day later, after a flurry of phone calls from Obama to recalcitrant Democrats, the House spoke -- and said it agreed.

Will the Senate?

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