Memories of 21, 42, 63 ... the 84th meandering

Clicked after dance class.

Tonight we started learning about Andalusian dance - who knew this would be part of Egyptian folk dance?

~~~

The WildClickers have supported 2,930,163.6 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 221,651.9 square feet.

American Prairie habitat supported: 68,861.5 square feet.

Rainforest habitat supported: 2,639,650.2 square feet.

~~~~

Lovely big yellow full moon tonight. The colour we're seeing here - the moon really could be made of swiss cheese.

Cloudy this way unfortunately......... arooooooooooooed anyhoo! <for our Alex - I always think of him and being like our Noddy - always did, always will>

There's another area - similar seize - "to the left". The cattle and the horses are just and only "on their site". (If the number gets too large, horses and cattle are given to other similar areas.)

Thanks Walter. Great stuff.

ehBeth, your cultural activities continue to amaze me. Green with envy.

Bill to Protect Wilderness Areas Is Defeated in House

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 12, 2009; A04

A bill that would have designated 2 million acres in nine states as protected wilderness was narrowly defeated yesterday in the House when it failed to garner the necessary two-thirds vote.

The measure -- which has passed the Senate and would represent one of the largest expansions of public lands in a quarter-century -- received 282 yes and 144 no votes, leaving it two votes shy of passage. Conservation groups and many lawmakers said the package, which combined more than 170 bills, would preserve some of the nation's remaining pristine landscapes, but several Republicans argued that it would cost too much to implement and would stand in the way of needed energy development.

"At a time when we need jobs and we need energy independence, it's the wrong time to be tying up too much land," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (Utah), who added that some of the proposals merited approval, but "so many of the bills could never withstand an individual vote."

Despite the loss, Mike Matz, executive director of the advocacy group Campaign for America's Wilderness, said the proposal has significant support and should move forward. "It's a question of timing; that's the big issue," he said, adding that the defeat congressional leaders suffered under the fast-track "suspension" of House rules they adopted for the vote caught them by surprise. "They don't go into there thinking that they're going to lose a vote."

The bipartisan bill would apply to areas from Oregon's Mount Hood to part of Virginia's Jefferson National Forest. Other affected states are California, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, Utah and West Virginia.

House leaders are likely to bring up the bill again, but the timing remains unclear, said a senior Democratic aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The aide said the leadership would bring it up only under suspension, which requires a two-thirds vote, because the 1,200-page package is so complex that it could be tied up by procedural motions if it came up under regular order.

"We expect the Senate to send us something that we can pass," the aide said.

Maybe coming near you.

A Deep Dive Into Troubled Waters

By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 12, 2009; C12

The handsome, rigorously researched documentary "A Sea Change," playing Saturday at the Environmental Film Festival, calls for some tough love on the part of even the most sympathetic viewer. The story of a retired educator who becomes interested in, and finally consumed by, the declining state of the world's oceans, the film brings a crucial and little-known issue to the attention of filmgoers. The movie, which takes the audience to some of the globe's most attractive locales, brings to surprisingly absorbing life the subject of ocean acidification. That's what happens when carbon dioxide -- released by cars and other fossil-fuel-burning culprits -- ends up in the sea, thereby fatally changing its chemistry.

Still, for all its virtues, "A Sea Change" presents some vexing questions -- having to do with structure, tone and full disclosure -- that exemplify the pitfalls that face even the best-intentioned filmmakers.

But first, some love. "A Sea Change" stars Sven Huseby, who as the film opens is bidding his beloved 5-year-old grandson Elias goodbye after a family visit. As Huseby explains in his narration, it was after just such a get-together that he first read "The Darkening Sea," a New Yorker article by Elizabeth Kolbert that spelled out how carbon dioxide is being absorbed by the oceans, changing their acid levels and inexorably killing the huge protein factories they support. Leaving his home in New York's Hudson River Valley, Huseby travels the world trying to thread his way through the science and sociology of ocean acidification, a journey that takes him to Northern California, Alaska and the farthest reaches of arctic Norway, where his ancestors were born.

"A Sea Change," which was co-produced by Huseby and directed by Barbara Ettinger, looks terrific, with lots of breathtaking footage of the natural world, from the tiniest pteropod (the fluttery, planktonic sea snail that is most threatened by acidification) to the most majestic Norwegian scenery. And, at a time when plenty of documentaries want to be the "Inconvenient Truth" of fill-in-the-issue, "A Sea Change" brings a genuinely important subject to the fore with a welcome lack of jargon and preaching. If the film features a few too many close-ups of Google pages, it still offers viewers a good-natured, persuasive and earnest surrogate to help tutor them in research and innovation that could otherwise leave them in the intellectual dust.

So, what's not to like? For one thing, Huseby structures his journey of discovery as a long, personal letter to his grandson, regularly reading from his postcards to Elias about his travels, calling him on the phone and visiting him at home in California. But while Huseby's concern for Elias and his generation is no doubt authentic, in time the conceit begins to wear thin. By the time the two are seen watching whales off the California coast, what was surely meant to make a scientific issue more personal veers dangerously toward solipsism. That faint air of insularity is made even more pungent by the fact that Huseby's world, whether in New York or California or Norway, is one of virtually unalloyed privilege.

This is particularly troubling when Huseby gets around to exploring solutions to global warming. While his interviews with entrepreneurs and activists are inspiring, again they seem to take place in a world where the face of ecological virtue is uniformly white and well off, and where apparently no one has heard of such visionaries as Van Jones, the Oakland activist whose mission is to "green the ghetto" with job training in renewable energy and clean technology. (He was just named a "green jobs" adviser to President Obama.)

A more serious concern arises when the curious viewer visits the film's Web site and discovers that director Ettinger is actually Huseby's wife, a fact that is never mentioned in the course of "A Sea Change." The relationship takes nothing away from the movie's ideas, of course, but that information should be shared if the filmmakers want to keep faith with their audience. The story that "A Sea Change" tells is urgent, unsettling and desperately in need of understanding and action. And it's too important to risk being dismissed because it was delivered without full disclosure.

A Sea Change (90 minutes) will be shown Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at the National Museum of Natural History's Baird Auditorium, 10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. A panel discussion with scientists and the filmmakers will follow the screening. Free admission.

Bush May Have Set Back 'Clean Coal' Efforts by 10 Years, Report Says

By Kimberly Kindy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 12, 2009; A03

The Bush administration's decision to halt production of an experimental power plant that would capture and store carbon dioxide emissions underground may have set back "clean coal" technology in the United States by as much as a decade, according to a congressional report released at a hearing yesterday.

Also, cost estimates used as justification for killing the commercial-scale project known as FutureGen were grossly exaggerated because Energy Department officials did not account for inflation, according to a Government Accountability Office report, also released yesterday.

The two reports, commissioned by the House Committee on Science and Technology, represent the latest efforts by the Illinois congressional delegation to revive the plant, which would be built in the small Illinois town of Mattoon. President Obama took part in the delegation's efforts when he was in the Senate.

The Bush administration killed plans to build the plant in December 2007, just hours after Mattoon was chosen over two sites in Texas, triggering allegations that the move was political.

"We have lost time, but we now have an administration that supports developing this technology," said Rep. Jerry F. Costello (D-Ill.), who led yesterday's hearing. "We have a project that I think will now get back on track and move forward."

The ultimate cost of the plant continues to be a matter of debate. Energy Secretary Steven Chu reasserted his desire yesterday to build the plant but cautioned that price estimates now range as high as $2.3 billion and that he would like to bring down the cost. He plans to meet soon with the FutureGen Industrial Alliance, private companies involved with the project, to determine how best to move forward. The alliance hopes to compete for $1 billion set aside in the economic stimulus package for "fossil energy research and development" projects.

The research project was announced in 2003 by President George W. Bush, who promoted it as the centerpiece of his efforts to deal with climate change. After spending $175 million on the plant, it was killed by the administration, which cited rising cost estimates and an arrangement that had the government paying two-thirds of the price. Administration officials denied that it was killed for political reasons.

The GAO report disputed the Bush administration's contention that the costs had nearly doubled, from $1 billion to $1.8 billion, saying the figure would be $1.3 billion if adjusted for inflation.

Mark Gaffigan, director of Natural Resources and Environment at the GAO, said Congress will need to mandate reductions in carbon dioxide emissions if it wants to get private industry to pay for FutureGen and similar research projects. "FutureGen is high-risk," he said. "They aren't going to pursue things until it is in their best interest."

Victor K. Der, acting assistant secretary for the Energy Department's Office of Fossil Energy, said the technology needs to be tested at a commercial scale. He also said FutureGen is the only project of its kind close to the construction phase, calling it "near shovel-ready."

Wolves still endangered.

March 12, 2009
Editorial
Mr. Salazar’s Repair Mission

Ken Salazar, the new secretary of the interior, has been working overtime amending or suspending bad policies dumped on the public during the Bush administration’s waning days. That may not be entirely fulfilling for someone eager to put his stamp on policy. But it is necessary work and, with one disappointing exception " his decision to uphold a Bush rule removing protections from certain wolf populations " very welcome.

Mr. Salazar’s efforts have received strong support from President Obama. At the Interior Department’s 160th anniversary celebration, the president pledged that the department’s scientists " muzzled and overruled during the Bush years " would be respected. He directed Mr. Salazar to review a Bush rule giving federal agencies far too much latitude to move ahead with projects that could harm threatened or endangered species without first consulting departmental scientists.

Mr. Salazar can’t reverse the rule, but he can ignore it while he decides whether to ask Congress to overturn it or begin a new rulemaking process. In the interim, species will receive the protections they always have.

Mr. Salazar has made real progress on other fronts. He has already cancelled some environmentally unsound oil and gas leases in Utah, and he has put the brakes on oil shale and offshore oil drilling initiatives.

Oil shale is seen by some as a kind of energy holy grail, even though nobody has figured out a clean, cost-effective way to extract it. Mr. Salazar has suspended some small leases and pledged to rethink the Bush plan to set aside two million acres of public land for future production. He says he is open to research, but dismissed as “fantasy” the idea that oil shale is a “panacea.”

He also rejected Bush administration plans to open vast coastal waters to oil and gas drilling. He agreed that some drilling was inevitable but ordered more time for public comment, promised an updated assessment of reserves and insisted on a broader strategy that would harness power from wind, waves and currents.

We hope that in the course of setting his new strategy Mr. Salazar will halt plans for drilling in sensitive and previously untapped Alaskan waters, especially Bristol Bay. We also urge him not to forget the wolf.

The Interior Department’s scientists say that wolf populations are healthy enough, and state protections strong enough, to take the animal off the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho. We do not share their confidence in the states. De-listing allows for some hunting, and hunters in both places are itching to start firing away. Mr. Salazar should be ready to restore protections the instant the long-term survival of the species seems at risk.

<clickety click>

Hey Stradee. This is right up your alley.

March 12, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Our Pigs, Our Food, Our Health
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

CAMDEN, Ind.

The late Tom Anderson, the family doctor in this little farm town in northwestern Indiana, at first was puzzled, then frightened.

He began seeing strange rashes on his patients, starting more than a year ago. They began as innocuous bumps " “pimples from hell,” he called them " and quickly became lesions as big as saucers, fiery red and agonizing to touch.

They could be anywhere, but were most common on the face, armpits, knees and buttocks. Dr. Anderson took cultures and sent them off to a lab, which reported that they were MRSA, or staph infections that are resistant to antibiotics.

MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) sometimes arouses terrifying headlines as a “superbug” or “flesh-eating bacteria.” The best-known strain is found in hospitals, where it has been seen regularly since the 1990s, but more recently different strains also have been passed among high school and college athletes. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that by 2005, MRSA was killing more than 18,000 Americans a year, more than AIDS.

Dr. Anderson at first couldn’t figure out why he was seeing patient after patient with MRSA in a small Indiana town. And then he began to wonder about all the hog farms outside of town. Could the pigs be incubating and spreading the disease?

“Tom was very concerned with what he was seeing,” recalls his widow, Cindi Anderson. “Tom said he felt the MRSA was at phenomenal levels.”

By last fall, Dr. Anderson was ready to be a whistle-blower, and he agreed to welcome me on a reporting visit and go on the record with his suspicions. That was a bold move, for any insinuation that the hog industry harms public health was sure to outrage many neighbors.

So I made plans to come here and visit Dr. Anderson in his practice. And then, very abruptly, Dr. Anderson died at the age of 54.

There was no autopsy, but a blood test suggested a heart attack or aneurysm. Dr. Anderson had himself suffered at least three bouts of MRSA, and a Dutch journal has linked swine-carried MRSA to dangerous human heart inflammation.

The larger question is whether we as a nation have moved to a model of agriculture that produces cheap bacon but risks the health of all of us. And the evidence, while far from conclusive, is growing that the answer is yes.

A few caveats: The uncertainties are huge, partly because our surveillance system is wretched (the cases here in Camden were never reported to the health authorities). The vast majority of pork is safe, and there is no proven case of transmission of MRSA from eating pork. I’ll still offer my kids B.L.T.’s " but I’ll scrub my hands carefully after handling raw pork.

Let me also be very clear that I’m not against hog farmers. I grew up on a farm outside Yamhill, Ore., and was a state officer of the Future Farmers of America; we raised pigs for a time, including a sow named Brunhilda with such a strong personality that I remember her better than some of my high school dates.

One of the first clues that pigs could infect people with MRSA came in the Netherlands in 2004, when a young woman tested positive for a new strain of MRSA, called ST398. The family lived on a farm, so public health authorities swept in " and found that three family members, three co-workers and 8 of 10 pigs tested all carried MRSA.

Since then, that strain of MRSA has spread rapidly through the Netherlands " especially in swine-producing areas. A small Dutch study found pig farmers there were 760 times more likely than the general population to carry MRSA (without necessarily showing symptoms), and Scientific American reports that this strain of MRSA has turned up in 12 percent of Dutch retail pork samples.

Now this same strain of MRSA has also been found in the United States. A new study by Tara Smith, a University of Iowa epidemiologist, found that 45 percent of pig farmers she sampled carried MRSA, as did 49 percent of the hogs tested.

The study was small, and much more investigation is necessary. Yet it might shed light on the surge in rashes in the now vacant doctor’s office here in Camden. Linda Barnard, who was Dr. Anderson’s assistant, thinks that perhaps 50 people came in to be treated for MRSA, in a town with a population of a bit more than 500. Indeed, during my visit, Dr. Anderson’s 13-year-old daughter, Lily, showed me a MRSA rash inflaming her knee.

“I’ve had it many times,” she said.

So what’s going on here, and where do these antibiotic-resistant infections come from? Probably from the routine use " make that the insane overuse " of antibiotics in livestock feed. This is a system that may help breed virulent “superbugs” that pose a public health threat to us all. That’ll be the focus of my next column, on Sunday.

•

Beth, i wasn't certain what Andalusian dance is, so i watched a clip. A tad of Flamenco also? Very smooth, plus athletic. You go girl!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JQT2VRKzKE&feature=related





http://rainforest.care2.com/i?p=583091674

....it's a ducks world....
Clicked.
Very nice to see everyone.

ehBeth, my canadian friend, thank you for the warmth.

Stradee, danon, teeny,sumac....good days to you.

Hi izzie - all clicked. Weathers loverly today - 63 degrees.

clickin n' workin'

Please tell Noddy the Wildclickers send {{{{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}}}





http://rainforest.care2.com/i?p=583091674

Alex, so good to see you're posting again!

Have a marvelous day!





http://rainforest.care2.com/i?p=583091674

{sigh}

Check it out.

Last year 900,000 Americans died from MRSA {staph infections} in hospital.

There arn't statistics of how many animals suffer and die in CAFO's, or human illnesses caused by watershed/food contamination.

Public awareness is crucial. Thanks for the articles.





http://rainforest.care2.com/i?p=583091674

Thanks, Walter

There are preserves for horses in the U.S. but they're competing with domestic animals for food, thier habitat shrinking {so the gov says} So far we've managed banning horse slaughter houses, and there's a bill before Congress that will prevent shipping animals to over the boarder plants.

We've only one 'proper' wild herd of horses (ponies) left: the 'Dülmen ponies - wiki report, another (longer) article. (The second site has a libnk to "Polish Konik ponies, too.)

visiting this topic for the first time and seeing ebeht's post :

brought back memories of visits to germany with ebeth .

i believe the year was 1973 and we were driving from amsterdam to hamburg , taking some secondary roads through westphalia to show ebeth the the "history , culture and landscape of germany " .
we were driving towards the weser river and the sun was beginning to set - time to find a place for the night . suddenly a sign appeared : SABA BURG .
up a narrow road we went to find quarters for the night .
as we were walking across the moat and some narow pathways , ebeth's nose started to crinkle . it turned out that there was no room at the inn - booked out - but karlshhafen was not far away . as we were leaving , eheth gave a sigh of relief and mumbled : " a rather 'muffig' - musty - place ; glad to be out of here " .
so much for "german history" !
in karlshafen we stayed overnight at a very nice kurhotel - yes , that kind of "german culture" she appreciated !

the following year we went on a camping trip through the gaspe peninsular (lower st. lawrence river/quebec) and the martimes .

we camped at "forillon national park" ( http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/qc/forillon/index_e.asp ) at the tip of the gaspe . from there we took a boat-trip to "l'ile bonaventure" ( http://www.bonjourquebec.com/qc-en/attractions-directory/quebecs-national-park/parc-national-de-lile-bonaventure-et-du-rocher-perce_1931757.html ) - the nesting grounds of 50,000 northern gannets .
my own photographic skills had not been developed too well - the colour photos are also not very crisp - black-and-white would have been better .
this is a photo i took from the boat and you might be able to see a few thousand of those gannets nesting on the rocks (the website has better pictures) .



finally getting to WETLANDS :
this part of eastern ontario has large areas of wetland - starting at the shores of lake ontario stretching north for several hundred kilometers .
within our city limits are several wetlands areas frequented by ducks , canada geese , beavers , muskrats , turtles , (non-poisonous) snakes and other wildlife .

practically at our doorsteps is the "little cataraqui creek conservation area" http://www.cataraquiregion.on.ca/lands/littlecat.htm

wintertime


the maple trees have already been "tapped" and "sugaring off" (boiling the sap to make maple syrup) has also started .
since we've had cold nights (below zero C ) and sunny days , the sap should be flowing nicely .



will go out and take some pics of our wetlands !
hbg

Interesting Walter. There's a lot i don't know about Germany. Thanks

hamburger, thanks for the links!

Here in America, we're working to save thousands of horses from euthanization




DALLAS - The wife of Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens wants to create a refuge for wild horses, after the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said it was considering euthanizing some of the 33,000 wild horses roaming the open range in 10 Western states.

Madeleine Pickens has proposed purchasing around 1 million acres to serve as a refuge for those wild horses now in holding facilities, and that the BLM has agreed to give her the horses once she has the land.


Update/March 3, 2009

Madeleine Pickens Testimony before the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands


Mr. Chairman, members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of H.R. 1018 and wild horses, an issue very near and dear to my heart.

My name is Madeleine Pickens, and I am a lifelong equestrian and animal lover. My husband, T. Boone Pickens, and I keep horses on our ranch in Texas, and I have had the good fortune and privilege to have bred and raced multiple champion race horses, including the famed Cigar, over the years. I am also keenly interested in wild horses and burros, and therefore am grateful for the opportunity to testify before the committee today on H.R. 1018, the Restoring Our American Mustangs (ROAM) Act, and to share some of my wild horse proposal with the. I commend Chairman Nick Rahall and Subcommittee Chairman Raul Grijalva for their willingness to lead on this issue. I know you are both true wild horse champions.

I want to share with the Committee details of a project I have been pursuing for several months now that could significantly assist the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) policies and practices when it comes to America’s wild horses and burros and which should be considered as the Committee reviews H.R. 1018.

Read the rest of her testimony here:

http://madeleinepickens.com/testimony/

Clicked for the day. Why is it so cold again?

There's still ice in the backyard and a small heap in the front yard. The front yard's so tiny that the snow was piled about 10 feet high - takes a while to rain/melt that down.

~~~~

The WildClickers have supported 2,930,208.0 square feet!

Marine Wetlands habitat supported: 221,681.5 square feet.

American Prairie habitat supported: 68,861.5 square feet.

Rainforest habitat supported: 2,639,665.0 square feet.

~~~

Wishing a pleasant earthturn to all the clickers.
I'll have to read back and catch up.
A lot's happened here today.

Danon's on his trip? I think so - will test a couple of his clicks.

Thanks Hamburger for the good pics and links. I love the little creek conservation area. It looks just about perfect.

Push to Reduce Greenhouse Gases Would Put a Price on Emitting Pollution

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 13, 2009; D01

President Obama's endorsement of climate legislation to clamp down on greenhouse gases has set off a lobbying rush in Congress and made the air thick with rival proposals.

Coal companies, utilities, economists and environmentalists are vying to shape legislation that could rechannel hundreds of billions of dollars from one part of the economy to others. The sense of urgency has been heightened by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman's push to have a bill ready by the end of May; the California Democrat plans to circulate a draft in about two weeks.

Because of regional differences in energy sources, the political lines are blurred, potentially uniting Democrats and Republicans from states heavily dependent on coal plants against other parts of the nation looking for alternatives.

Most lawmakers and climate activists embrace an approach to limiting greenhouse gas emissions known as cap-and-trade, which would set and gradually lower a limit on nationwide emissions while letting companies buy and sell rationing allowances. But some economists have lined up with big oil companies such as Exxon Mobil, which has endorsed a carbon tax instead. Seven House Democrats, including House Democratic Caucus Chairman John B. Larson (Conn.), introduced a carbon tax measure this week.

Either way, climate legislation will aim to reduce emissions by putting a price on carbon, raising the cost of everything from gasoline to plastics to electricity.

Opposing sides are striving to either frighten or woo voters with talk of whether climate legislation should be viewed as a big ill-timed tax or whether it will unlock new industries and technologies to make the economy more efficient and less dependent on foreign oil. On Tuesday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called it "a market-based solution that will drive us to energy independence and create . . . an even more robust market for alternative fuels." Earlier, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (Ohio) said " 'cap-and-trade' is code for increasing taxes, killing American jobs and raising energy costs for consumers."

Even companies are divided. The owners of nuclear power generators, which don't emit carbon dioxide, are at odds with utilities that rely on coal. And the emerging wind and solar industries are gaining a powerful voice as well.

"There's no end of the political fault lines and there's going to be a heavy burden for the White House," said Philip Sharp, president of Resources for the Future and a former House member.

The Obama administration's budget includes an outline of a relatively simple plan that, starting in 2011, would establish a cap on the quantity of emissions and auction off the right to emit pollutants. It would give the bulk of the money back to lower- and middle-income Americans through a means-tested tax credit. It would set aside a portion of auction revenue for aiding households and industries in regions hurt most by higher costs. It would also reserve a modest portion for research and development. The administration says it wants the program to be revenue-neutral.

At the center of the political battle in Congress are Democratic lawmakers like Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), whose state relies on coal-fired plants for 86 percent of its electricity; Evan Bayh (Ind.), whose state gets 94 percent of its electricity from coal; and Byron L. Dorgan (N.D.), whose state both relies on and exports coal-fired electricity and also has large wind potential. Republican lawmakers in the thick of the battle include Maine's Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe.

"I believe there's something happening in respect to our climate, and we ought to address that," said Dorgan, who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on energy. "The Congress is intent on doing something, but how quickly and how much, I don't think is clear yet."

Plans vary widely. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) favors a mechanism to put a ceiling on carbon prices to protect consumers.

Some cap-and-trade advocates believe the program should be designed as a "cap-and-dividend," giving every household a check for its share of the money raised through auctions. Supporters believe that would generate popular support for the legislation, much as Social Security checks generated support for Social Security taxes. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is planning to introduce a version of the cap-and-dividend idea next week.

At the other end of the spectrum are companies and environmentalists who believe that any plan must initially give away allowances to utilities in coal-intensive areas so that consumers there are not hit by suddenly higher electricity bills. Over time, the free allowances could be phased out and replaced by auctions. The 25-member U.S. Climate Action Partnership, that includes major corporations and a handful of environmental groups, has its own plan that would give away 40 percent of allowances to local coal-intensive utilities that would then keep rates low. How fast those allowances would be phased out is something on which the group cannot agree.

"I think you have to have at least a transition period of many years, a decade or so," said Fred Krupp, head of the Environmental Defense Fund and a key member of the group. "The question is: 'Is it fair?' Think about the customers in one of these coal-burning states. Their utility would be retooling to retrofit or generate low carbon energy in some other way. So what's fair is to have a transition period where carbon does go down, but there isn't a price shock in any region of the country."

That approach has the support of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), co-sponsor of three earlier cap-and-trade bills that failed to win Senate approval. Lieberman plans to form a bipartisan group of senators with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who co-sponsored two of those earlier measures.

"I see myself as a coalition builder," Lieberman said. "I don't think you can have a 100 percent auction. For fairness and the political viability of a proposal, we have to give assistance to the industries most affected by the major change we're proposing."

Sources familiar with the administration's thinking say the White House would be prepared to agree to a transition period, but that it wants to avoid a repeat of what happened to a bill last year that became laden with add-ons. "At some point, you've given away too much," said a person familiar with administration thinking.

"We think a well-designed cap-and-trade program will not have an adverse short-term impact on energy prices," said a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "But if we're completely eliminating the price signal, then we're removing the incentives for investments in energy efficiency."

"The ideological lines are being drawn," Van Hollen said. "There are a lot of interests arrayed to try to defeat this or water it down. What we have to do is to make sure we keep the public's interest in mind and make sure that we don't have a bill at end of the day that is so riddled with loopholes that it doesn't accomplish the purpose."