Climate Change Heats Up Washington

"For 12 years, the leadership in the House of Representatives has stifled all discussion and debate of global warming," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the Committee on Science and Technology last week.

"That long rejection of reality is over ... scientific evidence suggests that to prevent the most severe effects of global warming, we will need to cut global greenhouse gas emissions roughly in half from today's levels by 2050."

Pelosi said she aims to have legislation passed in the House to combat global warming by July and she is co-sponsoring a bill with Henry Waxman, D-Calif., called the Safe Climate Act to do just that.

But the House has already made some progress on energy issues.