House Panel Begins Debate on Climate Bill - washingtonpost.com

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) raised the possibility yesterday that the final version of climate legislation would not be ready a year from now, a day after vowing that the House would pass legislation "this year."

"It is my commitment that by the time we observe the 40th Earth Day next year, that we will have made substantial progress toward energy independence, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and . . . reversing the climate crisis," Pelosi told reporters at a gathering hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

Pelosi's remarks reflected the fact that many senators, including about a dozen Democrats, have reservations about a bill that would set an overall limit on greenhouse gases and then allow emitters to buy and sell the pollution allowances allocated by the federal government.

A Senate leadership aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk freely, said Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who plans to take up a cap-and-trade measure in the summer or in early fall, met this month with eight to 12 Democrats who "have some concern about going forward" with the bill.

Obama: Earth Day Speech Touts Green Jobs, Cap-and-Trade - Environmental Capital - WSJ

And just what should that legislation look like? Pressed for details, administration heavyweights testifying before the House were tight-lipped, ducking questions about many of the most crucial aspects of the draft legislation.
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Even Lisa Jackson, the head of the EPA, stressed that the EPA doesn’t really want to regulate emissions.

Trace amounts of carbon dioxide did that?

How do you get those of us who are not quite qualified to be NASA climate scientists, to understand the science behind global warming?

For one actual NASA climate scientist, Gavin Schmidt, the answer was to send professional photographers out with researchers so that pictures could help explain sometimes complex topics in his new book "Climate Change: Picturing the Science."

"The pictures show the scientists engaged in the discovery process so you're following along as if they were detectives in a CSI show," explains author Gavin Schmidt. "The other issue with climate change is how it intersects with human society and infrastructure. The photographs really bring that home how it happens. There's a great photo of a woman whose house is on the beach in Florida and after a storm, instead of her going to the beach, the beach has come to her."