House Determined To Create Jobs, Says Top Democrat

By Miles Wolf Tamboli
Talk Radio News Service

On the same day President Barack Obama traveled to Buffalo to talk about the need for increased job creation, his top lieutenant in the House said her chamber is intensely devoted to doing just that.

During her weekly press briefing Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) lauded last month's report by the Labor Department, showing that nearly 300,000 new jobs were added to the economy, primarily in the private sector, and said reforming Wall Street will lead to even more job growth.

"Never again will recklessness on Wall Street cause joblessness on Main Street," said Pelosi alluding to a tough financial regulatory reform bill being debated in the Senate. "[Democrats] are on the side of the middle class [and] the Republicans are on the side of Wall Street," she added.

With the House having passed its energy bill late last year, the Speaker said she was "optimistic" about the odds of a similar bill in the Senate passing. Pelosi praised the legislation for its measures to create jobs as well as lower the country's dependence on foreign oil.

Pelosi Cautious On Climate Meeting With China

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service

U.S Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was reserved in her choice of words today at the Brookings Institution as she reflected on her recent bipartisan trip to China to discuss the communist country’s climate efforts.

“This trip was very important for us because the U.S and China are the biggest emitters of gases and we have to come to terms in order for us to come to a multilateral agreement in Copehagen.” said Pelosi

The U.S delegation made the May trip after an invitation from the Chinese government. The meeting may have also given the U.S an ally against the growing threat that North Korea poses since its alleged nuclear and missile tests.

Bruce Klingner, an analyst for the Heritage Foundation, said that the Obama administration is “trying to press China to be less obstructionist, to allow for a greater punitive measure against North Korean government agencies.”

Why this (the climate crisis) “is important is we see it as a national security issue to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We see it as an economic issue to create clean energy jobs and to be competitive in our investments and our innovation and technology so that we can be the world leader,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi spoke about how the American delegation prepared for this trip, saying “We arrived in China, we knew what we were going there to do but of course with our message reinforced from what we had just seen (in Alaska) also equipped with a bill that had passed Congress on Thursday which was a historic, momentous legislation on how we would go forward.”

The House Speaker confirmed that China has already demonstrated efforts to take energy consumption and climate into consideration, as she said “The Chinese have done remarkable things... in terms of closing down coal plants that were inefficient, the investments in research and actual construction of buildings in different ways so they'd use less energy in their construction and on the ongoing.”

But Pelosi reported that, despite efforts towards for climate improvement on a certain level, the delegation was met with a certain resistance from their Chinese counterparts with regards to further resolutions.

“What they wanted to be clear to us is that as they were doing this and they were investing in the technologies and the rest... they were going to be developing still, sustainable development with more of an emphasis on the development side,” said Pelosi.

Every year, “600,000 die of pollution in China,” according to Pelosi.

Senator John F. Kerry speaks at Climate Change Hearing

Sen. John Kerry speaks at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Climate change and says that, “We need a transformation in public policy thinking to embrace the reality of what science is telling us.” We need to come to terms with the implications of the climate problems that we face because the consequences will be catastrophic if we don’t.(0:47)

by Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

The era of low energy prices is over

Ambassador Richard H. Jones, Deputy Executive Director of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) sub-group the international Energy Agency, said the recent economic crisis could lead to a premature supply crunch in energy.

Speaking at an OECD discussion on "Energy Projections to 2030", Jones said that this, among other findings, signals that the era of low energy prices is over.

Jones said that there is still a chance for energy and climate concerns to be addressed, citing the COP-15 United Nations Climate Change Conference set to be held in Copenhagen from November 30th to December 11th, 2009.

According to Jones, if a solution is not found it "wont be for a lack of resources or technology, but a lack of leadership."

“Lieberman- Warner Climate Security Act” breezing through Senate

Following a vote on the “Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act” in the Senate, a news conference with remarks by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was held in advocacy of the bill and how it will help keep our environment clean. The senators speaking at the press conference expressed their satisfaction with the bipartisan support the bill has received from other members of the Senate.

Concerning the bill, Senator Kerry described the role the next President will play in “getting this done” to solve the problem of global warming. Kerry mentioned that our nation has to set an example to other world powers such as China and India about properly funding initiatives to keep the environment clean.

Boxer talked about how, because Americans are concerned about climate change, this bill will pass more quickly than the Clean Air Act that took roughly a decade to pass. In an emotional moment, she told the story of a “beautiful” letter she received from ailing Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) about his appreciation and support for the bill.

Lieberman comically mentioned that, due to the success the bill had in acquiring Senate support, this morning’s vote was “A small step for mankind, and a giant step for the U.S. Senate.” He said the bill would help move American history in a direction it needs to go toward, with Boxer adding that funding for fuel alternatives could also help make our country less dependent on foreign oil.