senator lieberman quite happily showed me 98 may have votes on kyoto and the question what about the two others along quite disappointing for a young minister, and the environment and the time and did a lot to promote the kyoto protocol and there has never been in that close as we are now. we may well make further progress but we have come a long way and so as you are here today the supportive of of your colleagues in the house of representatives are doing because these are important goals we feel and it also important to pick the right instruments to address this issue. maybe the most far-reaching step may be the one where you say you would opt for an auction their cert. and i know how difficult this is, we are one of the leading industrial countries. we have brown coal power plants. i know very well how tricky this issue is but i think the bottom line is the good instrument to create a level playing field for competition in. i think we have to do everything we can in order to make this a success because there is more to it than the question of adopting some reduction time and princ

the kyoto treaty which is very similar to the proposals that we have had since that taoeufplt we know what that would have cost at that time, somewhere between $300 billion and $300 billion year as a permanent tax increase. and the proposal since then, there have been proposals on the floor of the senate in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008 and now this time. so i would say we in the senate have more experience in dealing with this issue than the house does, because this is the first time they've ever had to set floor consideration. over the past several weeks, speaker pelosi has been facing an insurrection within hur own rights. we've been reading about the democrats who are pulling out saying we don't want to be a part of the largest tax increase in the history of america. more and more people are jumping in saying we cannot have it. as of yesterday the american farm bureau came in as opposing the strongest opposition to this legislation. so let me just say if democrats are having trouble passing this bill in the house where the majority can pass just about any bill it wants, then there is no

[applause] >> kyoto news. i have a question about the numbers coming out to the rally spurred we have heard mixed reports about how many are attending. if you have an idea from the sources of whether the numbers have changed greatly in the past week and half, and whether you see them growing in the next few days. >> the numbers have been quite high. i think it has been, perhaps, the biggest gatherings that i remember ever in the history of iranian politics. not just in tehran, but the overall numbers of people being out there, and not just because of a political campaign or election campaign. now the call on the streets is everybody saying "we want freedom." this is well beyond elections now. this is about the sanctity of the ballot box. the flagrant stealing of the vote -- not necessarily because of this or that candidate, people saying "we have had it. how long are we going to put up with this situation is clear that is the spirit of this movement, which has grown -- how long are we going to put up with this

will america in the post-kyoto process be willing to commit itself to concrete reduction targets or are you pursuing a different kind of approach similar to your predecessor in office? >> first of all, one of the main reasons for me being in europe this week is to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the landing in normandy. and this is a moment that obviously is of great importance to the united states. so many lives were lost during this time. it marks the beginning of the end of world war ii. and many of the veterans of world war ii are in the sunset of their years. so having an opportunity to acknowledge them once again and the sacrifices they made was very important to me. as part of that trip we thought it was very important for me to visit the concentration camp. first of all, i had never traveled to one of the concentration camps, but this one has a personal connection to me. it is not only that i know elie wiesel, and my grandfather's brother was part of the units that first liberated that camp. i have talked about this before in the united states, perhaps not in germany. the sh

negotiations on climate change on a post-kyota -- on a post-kyoto treaty are also in order. we know it is very much an uphill battle. we are familiar with that from the debate that we have here in our country, and we are keeping a close eye on legislation that is passed. we, i think, are at one in saying we need an ambitious program, we want to have successful negotiations in copenhagen, and we want to make athe best use of our time. once again, a warm welcome to you, and we are so glad you and the members of your team have taken the trouble to come here. >> thank you very much, everybody. good morning. it is wonderful to be here in the beautiful city of dresden, which obviously is steeped in history, and as chancellor merkel discussed, has overcome great tragedies, and is now this beautiful city full of hope. so i'm very grateful at not only changs lower -- chancellor merkel, but to the german people for their hospitality. germany is a close friend and a critical partner to the united states. i believe that friendship will be essential not only for our two countries but for

and over 40% of the offsets that had been created under the kyoto protocol have come from china. the funds that come through purchase of offsets in foreign countries, will be the largest none military foreign aid bill that this house has ever passed. the chart that is beside me here shows that the $2.2 trillion in foreign giveaways is equal to 210 times the amount of money we give to help people on domestic heating oil and propane. 119 times the amount of money we give for making buildings more efficient. 111 times the money we give for clean vehicle technology. 33 times the money that we give for domestic natural gas consumers. 11 times the amount that we give for the domestic industrial sector. and five times the amount that we give to help out our domestic electric consumers. madam speaker, this money should be spent at home. we have enough problems at home that we have to deal with. and i think the congress has recognized this. but let's not send more money overseas. money that will come through higher prices at the pump, higher bills from our utilities, higher food prices wh