All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is suing the Yes Men, activist group that fooled several media outlets into reporting that the chamber had changed its position on climate change legislation. Meanwhile, pressure continues to mount against the business lobbying group for its opposition to the legislation.

The chamber filed a civil complaint this week against the Yes Men to protect its trademark and other intellectual property from unlawful use.

The activists, aiming to bring attention to the chamber's opposition to the climate bill, last week managed to dupe the media with a fake press release with the chamber's logo announcing the business group had it changed its position on the legislation and was also supporting the adoption of a carbon tax. The Yes Men also managed to lure reporters to a press conference at the National Press club where, standing at a podium adorned with the chamber's logo, a member of the activist group pretended to be a representative of the chamber.

"The defendants are not merry pranksters tweaking the establishment," said Steven Law, general counsel for the chamber, according to the Associated Press. "Instead, they deliberately broke the law in order to further commercial interest in their books, movies and other merchandise."

The Yes Men's Andy Bichlbaum told MarketWatch that the stunt was designed to call attention to the Chamber's opposition to the climate bill. He said he welcomed legal action from the business group for using its logo because "it would bring even more attention to the issue."

The chamber's opposition to climate change legislation has compelled some utility companies, as well as other businesses like Apple, to leave the group. The environmental organization Greenpeace is now asking other technology companies, including Google, Microsoft and IBM, to follow Apple's lead.

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Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:

** More campaigning on Obama's agenda...

** Does Reid have the votes to pass a public option?...

** Waiting for a decision on Afghanistan...

PRESIDENT OBAMA TODAY: President Obama starts his second day in a row in Florida with a tour of a solar energy plant in Arcadia followed by an announcement of "Recovery Act funding for a variety of Smart Grid technologies that will modernize the nation's electricity grid, enhance reliability, promote efficiency and allow for the integration of clean, renewable energy — all while helping consumers save money," per the White House. Today's event comes a day after fund-raising for Democrats in the Sunshine State, as Mr. Obama looks ahead to next year's competitive Senate and gubernatorial contests.

The St. Petersburg Times' Adam C. Smith and Alex Leary point out the political climate that's greeting the president in Florida is much harsher than it was during his last visit.

"Last time President Barack Obama visited America's biggest battleground state, our unemployment rate was nearly two points lower and his approval rating in Florida nearly 20 points higher. It was February, and he was in Fort Myers touting the $787 billion stimulus package. Today as he visits a new solar energy plant southeast of Tampa, the political climate is a lot chillier.

"Unemployment has risen, anxious seniors have spent months fretting about the health care debate and independent voters have increasingly soured on the president. It could all add up to problems for Democrats in the midterm elections…

"With almost every statewide office open in 2010, many Democrats say they are in the strongest position they've been in modern history. The state party is better organized than it's been in decades, Obama's political machine already has a dozen staffers organizing throughout Florida, and the leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Alex Sink, is significantly outraising the leading Republican, Bill McCollum.

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President Obama on Friday called for the passage of comprehensive climate change legislation, in order to make renewable energy profitable in America and jumpstart the development of cutting-edge clean energy technologies within the U.S.

"Nations everywhere are racing to develop new ways of producing and using energy," the president said at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The nation that wins this competition will be the nation that leads the global economy. And I want America to be that nation."

Earlier in the day, the president toured a MIT research laboratory working on solar, battery and wind technology, among other things.

The research going on there, he said, is a "reminder that all of you are heirs to a legacy of innovation – not just here but across America – that has improved our health and wellbeing and helped us achieve unparalleled prosperity."

Innovators today face greater challenges than in the past, Mr. Obama said. For instance, he said, "the system of energy that powers our economy also undermines our security and endangers our planet."

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Sarah Palin has found a renewable source of energy in her party's quest for a comeback. "Drill, baby, drill," she writes in a National Review opinion piece, echoing a slogan she employed often on the campaign trail last year.

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The CEO of Exelon, the largest utility company in the United States, announced today the company will not renew its membership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of the chamber's opposition to climate change legislation.

Exelon is the third utility company in the past week to disassociate with the chamber over climate change.

Speaking at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s national conference, Exelon CEO John Rowe said a cap-and-trade system, which the climate change bill passed in the House would enact, would create incentives for energy efficiency.

"Putting a price on carbon is essential, because it will force us to do the cheapest things, like energy efficiency, first," Rowe said in his prepared remarks.

Moreover, Rowe acknowledged that if Congress does not act, the Environmental Protection Agency would be compelled to regulate greenhouse gas emissions after finding that greenhouse gases are a cause of global warming and a threat to public welfare.

"If Congress does not act, the EPA will, and the result will be more arbitrary, more expensive, and more uncertain for investors and the industry than a reasonable, market-based legislative solution," Rowe said in his prepared statement.

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To hear world leaders and others addressing the United Nations Summit on Climate Change, the threat could not be more real and the need more urgent to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

But in stark contrast to the earnest statements is the carbon footprint associated with their gathering.

It happens every autumn: midtown Manhattan becomes the motorcade capital of the world. Each foreign leader in town has a convoy of vehicles. Some of them, like President Obama's motorcade, are 20-to-30 vehicles in length. It's so long - it seems that when the front of it reaches the U.N., the back end is still back at his hotel.

Exacerbating the annual exercise in diplomatic gridlock are police actions, blocking intersections and closing streets for security to facilitate motorcade movements. It renders countless other vehicles immobile while waiting for motorcades to pass, their engines idling but still blowing exhaust into the midtown air

Does it undermine the goal of the climate change summit and cause the pledges of environmental concern to ring hollow?

Asked about it, White House climate change negotiator Todd Sterns had a suggestion.

"I think the U.N. should make a pledge to electric vehicle motorcades within five years," he said.

Right. As soon as all U.N. diplomats pay their parking tickets.

Obama: It's "New Era" on Climate Change Policy
Obama's U.N. Debut: A Dizzying Agenda

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Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here. You can also follow him on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/markknoller.

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President Obama devoted his debut at the United Nations with an address on climate change, calling it a "new era" and touting his administration's record since he took office in January.

"It is true that for too many years, mankind has been slow to respond to or even recognize the magnitude of the climate threat. It is true of my own country as well," Mr. Obama said at a climate change forum hosted by United Nation Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. "But this is a new day. It is a new era. And I am proud to say that the United States has done more to promote clean energy and reduce carbon pollution in the last eight months than at any other time in our history."

In an effort to combat some international criticism of U.S. efforts, Mr. Obama pointed to what he called the U.S.'s "largest ever investment in renewable energy" as well as actions taken to increase fuel economy in automobiles and the energy bill that passed the House in June, but has yet to be discussed in the Senate.

"These steps represent an historic recognition on behalf of the American people and their government. We understand the gravity of the climate threat. We are determined to act. And we will meet our responsibility to future generations," he added.

Before Mr. Obama spoke, Ban Ki-moon called on the 100 world leaders assembled "to accelerate the pace of negotations" to get a new global agreement at an upcoming summit on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark, later this year.

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While health care reform has taken center stage in Washington, the fierce fight over climate change legislation continues this week with more than $1 million in new attack ads launched today, Politico reports.

Four liberal groups -- the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, MoveOn.org and Americans United for Change -- are running ads against five House Republicans who voted against the American Clean Energy and Security Act in June, to send the message that there is a political cost to opposing the measure.

The ads target Reps. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.), Denny Rehberg (R- Mont.), Roy Blunt (R- Mo.), Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.). They blast the congressmen for voting "'No' to the jobs we really need" in favor of supporting "big oil and energy interests."

While they attack the House members, the ads are running in states with moderate Senate Democrats who could be sympathetic to industries that oppose the legislation. Democrats in the Senate intend to address climate change next month.

Meanwhile, a progressive religious advocacy group is running radio ads to thank congressmen who voted in favor of the House bill.

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A group of 34 U.S. Nobel Laureates sent a letter to President Obama today asking for him to push for more research and development funding in the climate change and energy legislation currently making its way through Congress.

While the nation is gaining ground now in the clean energy sector, they wrote, the development of potentially lucrative, carbon-cutting sectors could fall flat within the next decade without more basic research funding.

"We can get many gains now in efficiency (and) conservation," Burton Richter, a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics who signed the letter, told reporters today on a conference call. "But to get what we need tomorrow, we must also invest more."

Specifically, the letter asks for the final cap and trade bill to establish a Clean Energy Technology Fund at $15 billion annually for 10 years, as Mr. Obama has previously called for. The president has previously proposed that proceeds from a cap and trade system be used to fund the initiative.

The cap and trade bill that passed in the House does not include any such stable funding mechanism; furthermore, about 85 percent of the permits for the cap and trade system -- which could generate revenue -- would be given away.

While the House bill would create technology deployment programs for particular industries, including coal and oil refineries, only 1.5 percent of funds in the bill would be allocated to energy R&D. The funding comes to roughly $2.5 billion a year starting in 2013, with $1 billion of that allocated to coal carbon capture research, Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) said in the conference call.

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Even as her poll ratings sag, Sarah Palin remains the Republican party's hottest commodity.

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