Update: White House reacts to Senate climate letter

The White House provided the response below to today’s letter from nine Senate Democrats laying out their climate policy principles:

“The President agrees with many of the Senators’ recommendations and has worked with other world leaders to advance a Copenhagen accord that reflects them. Domestically, the U.S. has taken numerous steps this year to transition to a clean energy economy – from setting an aggressive new fuel economy standard for new cars and trucks to making an historic investment in clean energy in the Recovery Act this year. The President worked closely with Members of Congress as they passed comprehensive energy legislation out of the House and is working with Senators to pass a bill that will decrease our dependence on foreign oil, create jobs and enhance American competitiveness.”
 
“In addition to taking strong action at home, the President has kept climate change at the forefront of our foreign policy throughout the year.  Following bilateral meetings with China and India, each country announced that they would take significant mitigation actions and stand by those commitments, and they called for full transparency as to their implementation. And the President has worked with Prime Minister Rasmussen in support of a comprehensive accord in which all countries take meaningful steps, that has immediate operational effect and rallies a global response to the global threat of climate change.”