Australia government to seek vote-trigger on carbon laws | Green Business | Reuters

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's government, facing Senate defeat of key emission trading laws, vowed on Friday to bring its climate-fighting regime to the upper house a second time, opening the door for a possible snap election.

The opposition-dominated Senate aims to scuttle Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's plan for emissions trade from 2011 and conservatives wielding the largest voting bloc plan a four-day filibuster next week that could see the bills defeated.

"We want a vote, we want the bill passed, and we have been clear that if the bill is not passed, we will bring the bill back, because we believe that action on climate change is important," Climate Minister Penny Wong told local radio.

Video: U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change [Fraud]: "We Can't Rewrite the Last Eight Years"

In an interview with the ThinkProgress Wonk Room, U.S. special envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern says the Waxman-Markey clean energy and climate legislation is what is needed and sufficient in meeting the challenge of building an international climate treaty and mitigating the most catastrophic consequences of global warming. Realizing that the U.S. has had to play "catch up," he says that we simply must move forward despite a wasted eight years of inaction and delay. "We're starting later!" he says, "It's unfortunate, but it's just the reality. We can't rewrite the last eight years, so we're starting later

Remember all the "successful" global warming policy of the eight Clinton/Gore years? Neither do I.