CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
– ENVIRONMENT
April 9, 2008 – 6:31 p.m.
Senate Republicans Seek Consensus on Greenhouse Gases in Private Meeting
By Kathleen Hunter, CQ Staff
Senate Republicans went behind closed doors Wednesday to take their first serious step toward consensus on an issue that deeply divides them: global warming.
There’s a wide range of views in that caucus, ranging from a determination to get swift government action to slow climate change to a belief that there’s no proven connection between human activities and climate change.
But Democrats say they will bring climate change legislation (
The leaders let more than a dozen Senate Republicans privately lay out their views Wednesday — an effort, Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander said, toward figuring out the caucus strategy.
“We need to take climate change and clean air on as an urgent issue,” said Alexander of Tennessee.
The timing of the floor action is an important consideration.
The caucus also has to figure out how its actions on that bill might influence the presidential prospects of Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee-in-waiting.
McCain supports what’s known as a “cap and trade” system to use the marketplace to discourage activities linked with climate change. It was not clear after Wednesday’s meeting how many in the caucus were in line with McCain on this issue.
“He’ll be the agenda-setter for our party,” Alexander said. “So we’ll certainly pay more attention to his views.”
Tom Coburn of Oklahoma said, “I think those of us who have a different position will oppose John McCain even if he is the president.”
The roughly hourlong meeting, which participants said was attended by about 40 Republican senators, was the first time that the Republican Conference had devoted a formal meeting to considering climate change proposals and was the first meeting this year called to specifically address a major legislative topic.
“We must have two dozen Republican senators with different ideas about combating climate change,” Alexander said.
“This is a big subject,” said Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter , who made the case for rival legislation (
Barbara Boxer , D-Calif., chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said she hoped the bill that John W. Warner , R-Va., is sponsoring with Joseph I. Lieberman , I-Conn., advances intact.
Caps on Greenhouse Gases
The Lieberman-Warner bill would impose a cap on greenhouse gas emissions and set up a market-based trading program for businesses to meet the cap.
It was approved by Boxer’s committee in December on a largely party-line vote. Opponents charge that the measure would cost too much and does not ensure that China, India and other developing countries would agree to limit their own emissions.
The debate already is shaping up as one that will be tinged with economic overtones. Leaving the meeting, a number of senators said that the discussion underscored the need to develop a “realistic” approach to combating climate change that does not put a drag on the already-faltering economy.
“Doubling the cost of your monthly electric bill doesn’t put you in touch with reality on this issue at a time of an economic slowdown,” Alexander said, adding that he expected climate change would remain on Republican senators’ radars in the coming weeks.
“We’ll see where we go from here,”Alexander added.
Comments
Why wouldn't they first ask for the evidence that CO2 is a climate driver and that reducing it will provide a benefit? And then contrast that with the minute concentrations by humans to the annual atmospheric CO2 volume compared to natural sources. Temperatures have not risen for almost 10 years even though CO2 levels continue a linear increase. How can temperatures not have correspondingly gone up if they are indeed driven by CO2? Isn't it critical to understand why this correlation doesn't hold before we dramatically impact our prosperity and economic system?
Sam- Because your statements are not backed by solid scientific research. Nor are they backed by public opinion polls. More and more, people are understanding that CO2 emissions are the cause of the speeding up of global warming. In the scientific community, it is nearly a consensus amongst scientists that CO2 emissions are the cause of global warming. Most of the people that disagree with this assertion are scientists funded (either directly or indirectly) by large oil companies. ExXon Mobil spends millions of dollars every year producing junk science to cloud the issue. Even amongst very socially conservative groups, such as the Southern Baptists, there are strong indicators that there needs to be more done about climate change. Sorry, Sam. You're out of touch with the scientific reality of global warming and out of touch with America. You can continue to make whatever argument you want, but you're not going to win anyone over to your side. Meanwhile, the American people will continue to realize how out of touch the Republicans are with their views on most issues.
Sam, your statement that temperatures have not risen for almost 10 years is patently false. I don't know if you're just repeating some stupid rhetoric that you heard or if you just made that up, but it's completely inaccurate. Temperature levels have risen over the past 10 years. As of 2006, 2005 was the hottest year that we have on record, and 2004 was the second hottest, according to temperature data that are collected by scientists. I can't believe that you actually had the audacity to print something that patently false without doing an ounce of research. On the economic arguments provided by Senator Alexander in this article, I think that Al Gore said it best: "Some people want to make a decision between prosperity and the planet. There's two problems with that. The first is if we do not have a planet..." In other words, we need to look at the impact of global warming prevention over the long haul. If global warming gets to the point that it is irreversible, the polar ice caps will melt and massive flooding will occur on the coasts, where 70% of people live and the majority of the world's businesses are located. There won't be much economic prosperity then.
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