Navigating a Minefield Part 2

In my first post on the coming climate legislation battle in the Senate, I focused on a myriad of suggestions on how both the politicians pushing legislation as well as environmental activists and organizations could work to get a stronger bill.  Despite the monumental challenge of getting to 60 votes in the Senate, as I said in the first post which I won’t repeat in depth here, there are advantages in terms of how to increase the pressure on Senators that we didn’t have in the House.  However that isn’t the focus of this post.  This post basically shows that absent a much stronger and smarter mobilization in the Senate, there will need to be wheeling and dealing done by President Obama, Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid, along with top Democrats.

As a disclaimer I will say that the  “pick your poison” scenario I lay out at the end is not one that I would like to see.  It is simply a look at what it’s going to take to get 60.  Another disclaimer is this is a long post, so bring a snack.