Three senators join forces to rescue climate bill
BY DINA CAPPIELLO
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON — A trio of senators with different political views launched a rescue effort Wednesday for troubled climate legislation.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., together with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., announced that they would work in conjunction with the White House to patch together a bill that could pass the U.S. Senate.
The three senators met individually Wednesday with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Carol Browner, the president’s assistant for energy and climate change.
“Our effort is to try to reach out to broaden the base of support …,” Kerry said at an afternoon news conference. “The key here is to really negotiate once, in a sense.”
Graham, who has come under fire in his home state for his support of action on climate change, said working on legislation was a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to solve two problems:
heat-trapping carbon dioxide pollution and the country’s dependence on foreign sources of fuel.
“If environmental policy is not good business policy, you will not get 60 votes,” Graham warned. “The green economy is coming. We can either follow or lead.”
The announcement came as a key Senate panel for a second straight day delayed voting on any changes to a climate and energy bill introduced in late September by Kerry and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., because no Republicans showed up.
Republican lawmakers are demanding a more thorough economic analysis of the measure, which would reduce heat-trapping gases by 83 percent by 2050, saying it will raise energy prices and cause job losses.
But the bill, which would set up a market for pollution permits, has also raised concerns among moderate Democrats, including Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
Kerry, Graham and Lieberman stressed Wednesday that their “dual track” for climate legislation would not usurp Boxer’s efforts, or the work of five other committees that have jurisdiction over energy and climate policy. They also said they had the blessing of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Instead, they said they would take the best pieces of the Kerry-Boxer bill and try to broaden support by adding more incentives for nuclear power and offshore drilling that could bring some Republicans and moderate Democrats on board.
Tony Kreindler, a spokesman for the Environmental Defense Fund, said the three senators “have given a new life to a bipartisan process.”
Left unanswered was how long the new process would take. Kerry said he would not be bound by a specific time f,rame. But with a month left until 192 nations gather in Copenhagen, Denmark to hammer out a new international treaty to slow global warming, the Obama administration and Democrats are under pressure to show movement on a climate bill.
The House passed its version of the bill in June.
“This is the year that we’ve got to reach out to each other and get the 60 votes to get something done,” said Lieberman. Lieberman co-authored a global warming bill last year along with former Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia and Boxer. The measure failed to get enough votes to advance on the Senate floor.
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America is on to the game and the gloves are off. Now is the time to take action, next November could be to late. March on Washington tomorrow if you can get there be there and don’t take any sht from anyone! your liberty is hanging in the balance.
We all live on the same planet!
The special interest controlled government has a long way to go in convincing people their concern is genuine unless they broaden their focus. Right now it is all about transferring money with cap and trade, marketing of pollution permits, or creating “green” pork projects.
If CO2 emmissions are a critical problem:
Why do they use coal fired electricity to light government buildings and monuments in the middle of the night?
Why do they promote row crop produced ethanol and biofuels over cheaper and more efficient cellulostic sources from switch grass and wood byproducts?
Why do traffic lights stop motor vehicles at empty intersections at 3am?
Why do nearly heavily subsidized empty busses and passenger railcars run underutilized routes?
Why is it cost prohibitive and futile to seek approval for construction of new U.S. nuclear power plants when the U.S. Navy and dozens of foreign countries have used atomic energy safely and effectivily for decades?
Why are scores of other wasteful and harmful issues being ignored while schemes to transfer money or create “green” cash cows becomes the government focus of climate change mitigation?
Follow the money for the answers about world governments’ concerns for the climate “emergency.”
Until they allow nuclear plants to be built, to serve as a legitimate alternative to carbon fuels (solar and wind are NOT legitimate alternatives), then I will fight cap and trade as strongly as I can. We need energy.