When our children, and our children's children, learn about this period of U.S. history, let us hope the extramarital travails of South Carolina's governor will be no more than a footnote. Let us hope they are taught that this year, the U.S. Congress passed a new kind of law, one that not only reduced harmful greenhouse-gas emissions but set the United States on a new trajectory to a more just, healthy and sustainable future.

The U.S. House of Representatives did just that late last month when it passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act. The bill in its current form does not go nearly far enough in reducing emissions and is overladen with giveaways to powerful business lobbies, but it aims in the right direction. If our children are to have a world in which they have the luxury to study history, this bill (or a stronger version) must become law.