Remarkably clueless stuff from Heather Zichal, Obama's "policy director for energy, environment, and agriculture"

She sees the US aggressively "charging forward" with domestic cap-and-trade, which she imagines will then bring countries like India and China "on board" with CO2 hysteria. She also imagines a US electorate where CO2 hysteria is "front and center".

She's got Obama's ear | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist

Grist: A common objection to putting a cap on carbon in the U.S. is that our caps don't mean anything if India and China aren't involved, and it would put us at an economic disadvantage. What's Sen. Obama's response to that?

Zichal: From Sen. Obama's point of view, we start with the basic premise that, first of all, a cap-and-trade program makes a lot of sense from an economic perspective, but also from an energy policy perspective. The point that Sen. Obama has made in the past when talking about this question is that climate change is a global problem and we all have to commit to trying to do this together. Rather than taking the backseat [as] we've done under the Bush administration, by taking a leadership role, charging forward, and making an aggressive commitment in this area, we will be able to provide the leadership and reengage in the international community and show this commitment, and have a better chance of bringing other countries on board with a domestic cap-and-trade program.
...
From Sen. Obama's perspective, he's in these battleground states, he's hearing day in and day out of the concerns from voters like, "Look, we can't go duck hunting because the duck migrations have changed," or "We have more forest fires than we've ever had before." The concerns are front and center and their emotions are being heard by their elected officials.