Lieberman-Warner Amendments

Posted by Brad Johnson on 05/06/2008 at 12:52PM

Sen. Harry Reid used his power as Senate Majority Leader to establish the terms of debate for the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 3036), filing for cloture and filling the amendment tree. Republicans have not yet submitted a list of amendments. All first-degree amendments had to be filed by 1 PM today. The vote on cloture is scheduled for Friday morning.

The amendments introduced last night, in order:

  • SA 4821 (Wyden): procedural
  • SA 4822 (Whitehouse-Menendez): Establishes a Climate Change Rebate Program. The amendment would ensure that funds are available each year to fully cover the increased costs of goods and services for the bottom income quintile and phase out the assistance over the second income quintile. The amendment would also increase funding for green jobs. The amendment preserves and strengthens the role of Local Distribution Companies (LDC) to prioritize energy efficiency programs.
  • SA 4823 (Whitehouse): Establishes Institutes for Ocean and Coastal Adaptation.
  • SA 4825 (Boxer): New subsititute. From E&E News:

Among the changes is language clarifying that border taxes collected on carbon-intensive goods from China and India would be subject to the annual congressional appropriations process. The new bill also would bring appropriators in to divvy up funds from the cap-and-trade bill after 2047. In an apparent bow to Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown, a fence sitter on the legislation, Boxer added language creating a new clean-energy industry institute in Toledo, Ohio.

  • SA 4826, 4827 (Biden): procedural
  • SA 4828-4832 (Reid): procedural
  • SA 4833 (Kerry-Feinstein-Snowe): Reports beginning in 2018 must include recommendations for avoiding 2 degree Celsius temperature increase.
  • SA 4834 (Durbin): Continuation of FutureGen Cooperative Agreement.
  • SA 4835 (Lautenberg): Prohibition of political interference with science.
  • SA 4836 (Biden-Lugar, with 15 cosponsors): Sense of Senate resolution with regard to international negotiations.
  • SA 4837 (Sanders): Fossil fuel-fired power plants whose construction began after January 19, 2007 are not eligible for free allowances.
  • SA 4838 (Sanders-Menendez-Kerry #1): 80 percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2050 by modifying post-2020 targets.
  • SA 4839 (Sanders-Menendez-Kerry #2): Ten million solar roofs in ten years.
  • SA 4840 (Sanders-Menendez-Kerry #3): 20 percent by 2020 federal renewable portfolio standard.
  • SA 4841 (Sanders-Kerry): 200,000 megawatts of renewable electric power from concentrating solar power plants in ten years.
  • SA 4842 (Allard #1): Hydrofluorocarbon emission allowances shall not be terminable.
  • SA 4843 (Allard #2): An emission allowance shall constitute a property right.
  • SA 4844 (Menendez-Kerry #1): Mandates reports on economic impacts of climate change.
  • SA 4845 (Menendez-Lautenberg-Sanders #1):
  • SA 4846 (Menendez-Kerry #2): Increase funding for the set-aside to prevent emissions from tropical deforestation. The funding would be offset by a reduction in the transition assistance to the refiners of petroleum-based fuels.
  • SA 4847 (Menendez-Lautenberg-Sanders #2): Phases out free industry allowances by 2022. Cumulatively, between 2012 and 2030, this proposal would transfer about $200 billion from fossil fuel generation transition to the states. States would then be required to spend a portion of this money on renewable energy, energy efficiency, worker transition, and low-income consumer assistance.
  • SA 4848 (Nelson (Neb.)): Establishes National Commission on Energy Policy and Global Climate Change.
  • SA 4849 (Baucus #1): No revenue or outlays may be disbursed from any fund established in the Treasury of the United States by this Act, except pursuant to legislation reported by the congressional Committees of appropriate jurisdiction and subsequently enacted by Congress.
  • SA 4850 (Baucus #2): Eliminates Climate Change Worker Training and Assistance Fund and Climate Change Consumer Assistance Fund. Monies for those programs go into “Tax Relief Fund.”
  • SA 4851 (Barrasso #1): National Forest “hazardous fuels” clearing and wildfire reduction mandate; authorizes timber sales.
  • SA 4852 (Barrasso #2): Increases free allocations of allowances for carbon-intensive manufacturing facilities in United States, includes “nonfuel minerals” in category.
  • SA 4853 (Barrasso #3): $50 billion for coal-fueled carbon capture and sequestration projects.
  • SA 4854 (Barrasso #4): Endangered Species Act recovery plans do not need to be changed.
  • SA 4855 (Barrasso #5): Free permits for small business refiners.
  • SA 4856 (Barrasso #6): Establishes commission until 2020 to grant financial awards for the achievement of milestones in developing and applying technology that could significantly slow or reverse the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by permanently capturing or sequestrating those gases without significant countervailing harmful effects.
  • SA 4857 (Dorgan): $20 billion for not fewer than 5 commercial facilities that capture and geologically sequester carbon released when coal is used to generate electricity.
  • SA 4858 (Dole #1): The United States should not rely on ethanol produced from corn and should rely increasingly on advanced, clean, low-carbon fuels for transportation.
  • SA 4859 (Dole #2): Increased forestry sequestration offsets.
  • SA 4860 (Dole #3): Sense of the Senate Regarding the Need to Expedite Certain Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Lease Sales.
  • SA 4861 (Dole-Warner): Strikes Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements.
  • SA 4862 (Dole-Whitehouse): Technical corrections to the coastal impacts section which Dole and Whitehouse got into the manager’s package.