Reply #10: If someone has lost their job, maybe their home, and doesn't

[beachmom]

know how they are going to get by in the next year, I don't think they are actually being me oriented to say that jobs and other issues are a higher priority than global climate change.

But ... if you present a bill where new industries are going to sprout up with good paying jobs, that may interest that person.

I actually think people SHOULD vote their interests. The problem is that the religious right put things all out of whack. A lot of lower class people who would be helped by liberal policies don't vote their economic interests, while wealthier folks in, say, the northeast end up also voting against their economic interests, they are so turned off by the religious right in the GOP.

Right now, I don't see a coalition to make global climate change pass. Who benefits from doing something about a problem nobody can see? So, therefore, I think doing an energy independence/jobs oriented bill is the only thing people can understand.

I wish there was a way to lower carbon usage without people feeling like they are going to get hit. I think a new idea needs to come forward than cap & trade. The Webb bill would be ineffective (all carrot, no stick). How do you encourage alternative energy & energy efficiency while not hurting people in terms of their energy bills? I don't know .... but I am telling you, guys, that the situation looks grim.