Sen. Boxer (D-Calif.) successfully shepherded the Lieberman-Warner
Climate Security Act (S. 2191) out of the Environment and Public Works
Committee from yesterday’s
markup
with a 12-8 vote, Sen. Warner and the two independents (Lieberman and
Sanders) joining the nine Democrats.
Boxer:
The vote of the Environment and Public Works Committee in favor of the
Climate Security Act was a historic moment for our country and for my
Committee.
For me, it was the greatest legislative accomplishment of my political
career of thirty years.
Finally, America is taking bold steps to avert the catastrophe that
awaits our children and grandchildren if we do nothing.
Our bill has two goals…to fight global warming and to do it in a way
that keeps our economy strong. That will be my focus in the coming
weeks and months as we move the bill forward to the Senate floor.
This bill is the most far reaching global warming bill in the world
and I am grateful to Senators Lieberman and Warner for breaching the
partisan divide and unleashing a spirit of cooperation that puts the
wind at our backs.
Ranking member
Inhofe:
For the first time in history, a fatally flawed global warming
cap-and-trade bill was passed out of committee. Not only is the entire
cap-and-trade approach fatally flawed, but the Lieberman-Warner bill
failed to improve today, as Democrat amendments were added. Instead of
engaging in substantive debate, the Democrats chose to simply reject
all serious efforts to mitigate the unintended consequences of this
bill and ensure adequate future energy supplies for this nation.
The rejection of key amendments has guaranteed an enormous floor fight
as many major issues were side-stepped. While the vote today was never
in question, it did provide an opportunity for Republicans to expose
the serious deficiencies of this bill. The full Senate now needs to
look at a cost-benefit analysis of this bill. It is simply all
economic pain for no climate gain. Numerous analyses have placed the
costs at trillions of dollars. Even if you accept the dire claims of
man-made global warming, this bill would not have a measurable impact
on the climate.
Republicans, in a good faith effort, offered a conservative number of
amendments [Ed.—150] to address the most important flaws in this
bill. Unfortunately, they were rejected. As is, this bill will strike
a devastating blow to American families, American jobs, and the
American way of life.
We have had approximately 20 climate hearings on the impacts of
climate change, but none on so called ‘solutions.’ [Ed.—other than
this, this, this, this, this, this] Differing approaches to reducing
emissions were never discussed. Instead, the Committee rushed to a
single approach, without the aid of government analyses.
Within seven years, electricity prices are estimated to skyrocket 35
to 65 percent and will have a huge economic hit on households. These
costs are far greater than the McCain-Lieberman bill that was voted
down by the Senate two years ago. Additionally, the poor will be the
hardest hit as they pay about five times more per month, as a
percentage of their monthly expenditures, compared to wealthier
Americans. By 2015 this bill is estimated to cost up to 2.3 million
jobs [Ed.—by CRA International], and these lost jobs will go to
China, India, and other emerging nations without carbon limits.