Last week, the editorial board of the New York Times weighed in on the role of the Senate in moving climate change policy forward. It used the upcoming Copenhagen meetings- which President Obama will be attending to press for strong goals- as a jumping off point for refocusing attention on the work that continues in the Senate to pass the Kerry-Boxer bill.

While health care is monopolizing most of the time and attention in Washington, climate change has hardly been forgotten. Reports this week are that the administration will be issuing new emissions targets soon, and as the NY Times editorial notes, “The Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer and Jeff Bingaman have produced bills that could form the basis of a broad measure curbing emissions and ushering in alternative energy sources.”

The Times is less bullish than Senator Boxer in saying that “[w]ith very few exceptions, the Republicans have behaved terribly,” but it will certainly be a challenge to get strong legislation through. Senator Boxer has always said that addressing climate change is the great challenge of this generation, and there’s no choice for us but to meet that challenge. It won’t be easy, but we have no choice to rise to the occasion.