Mama Earth dodges a few bullets

From the point of view of nature, this year's elections didn't go as badly as they could have. If we were giving Americans grades for fucking up the planet through the ballot box, I would be handing out a B. With both houses potentially going to the party that is unwilling to take a real stand against climate change , a big fat A+ was in the cards.

The Senate did not go totally Republican, although with double the amount of Dems as Republicans up for election in 2012, a Grand Old Senate ain't far off.

Even though it was pretty ugly watching various American states vote one after the other for climate change deniers, the most symbolic Republican victory was -- if you can believe it -- ALSO something of a victory for Mother Earth. Mark Kirk, who snatched Obama's old Senate seat from out of the Democrats' hands, is, in a word, an environmental baller. He's one of 7 or 8 house Republicans who voted for Waxman and Markey's Cap and Trade bill -- and yes, he took a WHOLE lot of shit for that vote from his base -- and he did it for the right reasons (fuel independence AND getting our greenhouse gas emissions lower). Let's see if he and a few northeastern Republicans can get behind an altered Cap-and-Dividend bill...?
Plus, Kirk voted for McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform. God, I don't think I've ever had a bigger man-crush on a living republican policymaker.

Sharon Angle lost. Yahoo...? I can't believe that race went down to the wire.

Also - even if in the world's biggest economy was willing to play fast and loose with their children's future natural capital, at least voters in the world's eighth largest economy took a stand. California's Proposition 23 went down in flames. And you know what? I'm GLAD the Global Warming Solutions Act was put to the referendum test. It was scary when the polls were close, but now serious action on climate change has an incontrovertible mandate in this state.

Unfortunately, even CA gets some points on its fuck-up-the-planet scorecard for voting Ye on Prop 26, thereby hamstringing the state's ability to raise funds to back up the Global Warming Solutions Act. I think the truth is that Prop 23 was the true climate killer, though. Murder avoided.

Two questions that I have yet to figure out.
1) Does Prop 26 block CA's ability to use cap-and-trade under the Global Warming Solutions Act?
2) Now that we only need 50% to pass a budget, who cares if raising fees need 2/3 support? Couldn't they just be rolled into the budget -- thereby requiring only a super-majority?