On Friday, 10 Democratic senators wrote a letter [PDF] to Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) outlining the reasons why they would not have voted in favor of the Climate Security Act. Democratic leaders pulled the bill from the floor last week after it failed to muster enough votes to move forward.
The senators who signed the letter are from key energy-producing and manufacturing states, and argue that the bill would impact their constituents disproportionately. While they said they support a cap-and-trade program to reduce emissions, they wouldn't support the particulars of the CSA.
"We believe a federal cap-and-trade program must not only significantly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions but also ensure that consumers and workers in all regions of the U.S. are protected from undue hardship," they wrote. "A federal cap-and-trade program is perhaps the most significant endeavor undertaken by Congress in over 70 years and must be done with great care."
The letter also outlines measures the senators would like to see in any future legislation: stronger cost-containment mechanisms, increased investment in new technologies, more carbon credits allocated to states with a large industrial base, more price relief for low-income Americans, more provisions to prevent jobs from being outsourced, preemption of state emissions plans once a federal plan is in place, and greater use of agricultural and forestry offsets.
The senators who signed on to the letter: Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin (both of Michigan), Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor (both of Arkansas), John Rockefeller (W.Va.), Jim Webb (Va.), Evan Bayh (Ind.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), and Ben Nelson (Neb.). Of these senators, all but Brown voted for cloture on Friday. The others wanted to make it clear that their vote to begin debate on the Climate Security Act was not an endorsement of the bill's specifics.
In a press conference on Friday, Boxer said she would begin meeting with these senators as early as this week to discuss their concerns with the bill and start work on future legislation.
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randino Posted 5:34 am
09 Jun 2008
In fact, the people who made up this list might be a foretaste of the future of opposition to climate change legislation. Instead of the science denying neanderthals we are used to dealing with, we might find even more trouble with people who know that climate change is a problem - but they are still not going to do anything about it! My trust level is in the negative numbers since I am from Ohio. And the part about federal pre-emption of climate regulations? Can the populist crap. This is a gift to industry so that California can be restrained.
So, it is important to elect a Democratic government this fall. But it is even more important to build organizations on the local level, and grow them with tender loving care. Just in case our saviors don't end up being saviors after all. Lets not get fooled again.
Randy Cunningham
Cleveland, OH
Randy Cunningham
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Sam Wells Posted 5:58 am
09 Jun 2008
I think people are worried about the numbers, since there are CO2 (and methane and nitrous) emissions, the value of those permits in dollars per ton, the cost-effectiveness threshold, and what the valuation of the cap would be.
For example, annual permit fees run about $25 per ton of VOC, CO, and NOx; the cost effectiveness threshold is $13,000 per ton, and credit are trading for about $11,000.
But there's so much CO2 being released obviously those numbers would be one to three orders of magnitude lower. If there is no "reasonableness" or "threshold" built into the system, a bunch of very bright permit engineers are going to lobby their bosses against such a system.
So I guess they need some hand-holding, eh? Folks, trust me, most of the Politicos don't know dookie about air permitting, and have little snappy terriers telling them what to think!
Onward through the fog
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Cacaoatl Posted 2:04 pm
09 Jun 2008
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