Senate takes up global warming Tuesday, and it’s Haley Barbour against the world

The Committee on Environment and Public Works launches the Senate’s global warming debate tomorrow, and the best sports metaphor for the witness lineup on day one has to be the soccer shoot-out.
Wearing green and kicking for climate legislation will be:
Energy Secretary Steven Chu
EPA Director Lisa Jackson
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
David Hawkins of the Natural Resources Defense Council
John Fetterman, mayor of the wiped-out steel town of Braddock, PA
Rich Wells, vice president for energy, The Dow Chemical Company
Goaltending for the Republicans will be:
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour
But before we get to Mr. Barbour and his amazing shot-blocking athleticism, some may be wondering what Dow Chemical Company is doing on the green list. Dow supported the House climate bill while requesting changes to protect competetiveness, and while plenty of lefties will tell you that’s because the climate bill is just another cash cow for industry, here’s an excerpt from the testimony Wells submitted to the House in April on behalf of Dow:
Dow accepts the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) conclusion that it is very likely that human activities are causing global warming. We recognize the serious nature of the threat and that it warrants bold action. We understand that it is not enough to agree with consensus scientific opinion. Our commitment to sustainability requires that we act upon such information responsibly. To that end, Dow has made considerable progress in reducing its climate “footprint.”
Climate legislation offers a public-relations opportunity to a company that has been associated in the past with Napalm, Agent Orange, and leaky breast implants. And speaking of toxins, Barbour has made his fortune, when he’s not running Mississippi (2003-present) or chairing the Republican Party (1993-1997), as a lobbyist representing tobacco, defense, pharmaceutical, and energy companies.
Concerning his goaltending abilities, Frank O’Donnell of Clean Air Watch credits Barbour with preventing the Bush Administration from taking action on global warming. “As a lobbyist for Southern Company in 2001, he persuaded the Bush administration to renege on a campaign promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electric power plants,” O’Donnell said in an email. “Talk about a guy with juice!”
Not sure how much juice that took, but Barbour’s affliation with Southern Company is juicy enough. He lobbied the Bush Administration on Southern’s behalf to weaken enforcement of Clean Air Act standards. The utility operates in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Barbour’s Mississippi, and has spent $3.65 million on lobbying activities in 2009, focused on the House climate-change bill, coal-ash disposal, uranium importation, and the allocation of stimulus funds. The main lobbyist named in Southern’s most recent disclosure report, John L. Pemberton, is a former counsel for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Southern has contributed about 9.4 million to candidates in the last 20 years, with the vast majority going to Republicans until this year. Now Southern gives most of its cash to Democrats.