Hill Heat

From the Wonk Room.

On May 27, the Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote about the Climate Security Act (S. 3036):

Warner-Lieberman would impose the most extensive government reorganization of the American economy since the 1930s.

A week later, Sen. Jim Inhofe changed “reorganization” to “expansion,” writing in the Wall Street Journal that the climate legislation “will create the largest expansion of the federal government since FDR’s New Deal.”

Conservative senators have been coordinated on the Senate floor in repeating the Wall Street Journal-Inhofe message:

Judd Gregg (R-N.H.):

These allowances which really are a consumption tax in my opinion will essentially be used to greatly expand the government.

John Cornyn (R-Tex.):

This is the kind of huge expansion in government power over our lives and over the economy that is really unprecedented in our country, and I suggest is the wrong solution – is a – is a wrong answer to the – to what confronts us today.

George Voinovich (R-Ohio):

I feel it is overly aggressive, outpacing what technology can provide and thus assuring economic pain on the country and it is overly bureaucratic and cumbersome in its implementation, representing an unprecedented expansion of government power and a massive bureaucratic intrusion in American lives that will have a profound effect on businesses, communities and families.

The right wing is still upset with Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, and wants to go back to an era without the system of labor, health, economic, and environmental protections that built the American middle class. They fear that the American public will realize that a New Green Deal of progressive policies could restore our economic future. Yesterday, Chuck Grassley (R-IA) complained:

The bill before us creates a raft of new government spending programs.

He and his fellow conservatives have put us on a sinking ship, are burning the life preservers, and won’t even let us build a “raft.” As David Roberts writes, “Unless we want to go down with the ship, we need to start building an ark.”

The Senate will convene at 9:30 am.

Speakers:

MORNING BUSINESS

• Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.)
• Bill Nelson (D-Fla.)
• John Cornyn (R-Texas)
• Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)
• Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)
• Tom Carper (D-Del.)
• George Voinovich (R-Ohio)
• Kit Bond (R-Mo.)
• David Vitter (R-La.)
• Pete Domenici (R-N.Mex.)

11:30 AM: Other business.

Morning business resumes at 12:15 PM.

• Thad Cochran (R-Miss.)
• Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.)

04/06/2008 at 09:30AM

In a 74-14 roll call vote, the Senate invoked cloture on the motion to proceed to consider the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 3036). Republicans refused to allow Majority Leader Harry Reid dispense with the thirty hours of debate permitted under Senate rules before official consideration of S. 3036 begins, thus ensuring another full day of debate on the issue.

The senators voting against the motion were Byrd (D-W. Va.), and Republicans Bunning, Shelby, Craig, DeMint, Hatch, Enzi, Barasso, Sessions, Coburn, Kyl, McConnell, Allard, Inhofe.

A coalition of corporations, labor, religious and environmental organizations has announced its support of Sen. Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA) manager’s mark of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. Several are members of the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), which called for mandatory climate legislation in January 2007, but more recently has been wrapped in internal conflict.

The letter begins:

The undersigned companies and organizations urge you to vote in favor of the Climate Security Act, S. 3036 (formerly S. 2191), which is expected to be considered by the full Senate beginning June 2. This is a very important vote on a bipartisan plan to address climate change. Prompt action on climate change is essential to protect America’s economy, security, quality of life and natural environment.

USCAP signatories are Alcoa, Environmental Defense Action Fund, Exelon Corporation, FPL Group, General Electric, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, NRG Energy, Inc, and PG&E Corporation. Non-USCAP signatories are Calpine Corporation, Interfaith Power and Light Campaign, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Izaak Walton League of America, National Grid, National Parks Conservation Association, Pew Environment Group, Public Service Enterprise Group, Trout Unlimited, and the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting (UA).

Full text is below:

Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to consideration of S. 3036, Climate Security Act, and vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed at approximately 5:30 p.m.

02/06/2008 at 02:00PM

The White House has issued a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 3036), indicating that President Bush will veto the bill, citing fundamental differences with its approach, including mandatory emissions reductions and carbon pricing. The full text of the SAP is below.

In an address calling on Congress to make all his tax cuts permanent, Bush made the following statement:

Today the Senate is debating a bill called the Warner-Lieberman bill, which would impose roughly $6 trillion of new costs on the America economy. There’s a much better way to address the environment than imposing these costs on the job creators, which will ultimately have to be borne by American consumers. And I urge the Congress to be very careful about running up enormous costs for future generations of Americans.

We’ll work with the Congress, but the idea of a huge spending bill fueled by taxes – increases – isn’t the right way to proceed. And the right way for Congress to proceed on taxes in general is to send a clear message that the tax relief we passed need to be made permanent.

Former Vice President Al Gore’s statement on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 3036):

I want to commend Senator Boxer for her leadership of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Thanks to her vision and dedication, we have the first global warming bill in history that is comprehensive, bipartisan and that enjoys support across the country – from labor and agriculture to the business and the environmental communities. Of course the bill needs to be stronger, but it’s vital that Congress begin to act. While it’s important that people change their light bulbs, it’s even more important that we change the laws.

On Saturday, May 31st, Senator Boxer gave the Democratic Radio Address on this week’s upcoming debate on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 3036).

Right now, many of our states, including my home state, are leading. They have the will. Our mayors are leading. They have the will. Religious leaders have urged us to act now as well. They reminded me of a wonderful quote that motivates me to work as hard as I can for as long as it takes to responsibly address global warming. These words stay with me: “When God created the first man, he took him around to all the trees in the Garden of Eden and said to him ‘see my handiwork, how beautiful and choice they are. Be careful not to ruin and destroy my world, for if you do ruin it, there is no one to repair it after you.’”

The full text of the address is below.

The conservative Club for Growth has launched a $250,000 radio and television campaign targeting several coal-state senators in opposition to the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 2191/3036). The Environmental Defense Action Fund, the C(4) side of the Environmental Defense Fund, has also begun a much larger $4 million campaign that comes on top of the estimated $8.5 million already spent this year in support of the cap-and-trade legislation.

The text of the Club for Growth ad running in Tennessee:

Congress is at it again. This time they’re pushing massive new taxes and regulation in the name of global warming. But let’s ask ourselves, are the unproven benefits of legislation worth the major job losses, new taxes and increased energy costs that could result?

Call Senator Lamar Alexander and tell him to vote “no” on the Lieberman-Warner climate bill. Tennesseans just can’t afford another huge, costly government program.

Club for Growth	Environmental Defense