After months of delay, progressive champion Senator Kerry (D-MA) finally released the Senate’s response to the House-passed American Clean Energy and Security Act. The senate draft climate bill titled “Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act” is a solid improvement over the house version, but still falls short of what scientists say is necessary to avoid the worst effects of the climate crisis. Unfortunately due to the disproportionate amount of power wielded by polluter-friendly Senators, it looks like this already weak bill is about to get weaker and is all we can get out of this congress.

Sen. Baucus (D-MO) (surprise surprise) is one of those pollution-friendly senators and he wants to take advantage of his chairmanship of the Finance Committee to turn the climate bill into a pork fest for fossil fuel dealers. His initial plan was to use his notoriety gained from successfully brokering a healthcare deal to get his hands on the climate debate as well. Luckily for us his healthcare adventure isn’t going too well so it’s still unclear how much of the final bill Sen. Baucus will put his hands on.

There are plenty other Democratic Senators gearing up to run over the climate bill. They are the usual suspects, the ones with dollar signs in their eyes and their constituents’ interests left on some shelf in the basement gathering dust. Sen. Rockafeller, Sen. Landrieu, Sen. Byrd, Sen. McCaskill, and Sen. Conrad are ready to put up a fight to secure a future for fossil fuels and an end to civilization and everyone else.

Fortunately we also have a good number of Republicans who have expressed interest to break the bounds of politics and work to save the planet. Other than the usual suspects from Maine (Sen. Snow and Sen. Collins), Sen. LeMieux, and Sen. McCain make some of the Democrats less useful. Unfortunately almost every pro-climate bill Republican is also very pro-nuclear, which means we might get a handful of radioactive waste in exchange for a saved planet.

Overall the fight is an uphill one, especially since Democrats both in congress and in the administration simply refuse to play hardball and communicate the urgency of climate action to Americans. In case you missed it, notice that the bill title doesn’t include any reference to the climate crisis (Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act).

Young people need this bill to pass so we can set up a system to start mandating climate reductions, but we need to work harder to make sure that anti-climate politicians are held accountable at the next elections. Talking to each other just isn’t enough anymore. It’s time to talk to our parents, our employers, our friend’s parents and any other older person you meet. Tell them why you and the rest of your generation needs to get a climate bill passed. Only when more people recognize the urgncy will we be able to actually get a decent climate bill through our broken political system.