Free Republic

The Senate climate bill has been at death’s door several times over the past year. But with the days before the August recess quickly slipping away, the case may truly be terminal now. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has wanted to introduce a sweeping energy and climate bill by next week, and Reid even told POLITICO on Monday night that the package was almost ready to go. But by Tuesday afternoon, Reid was noncommittal about when a bill would come or what it would contain. “We’re going to make a decision in the near future,� Reid said, describing plans...

The Senate sponsors of a sweeping climate change bill are drafting a scaled-back version focused on electric power plants in a bid to salvage a role for greenhouse gas curbs in the Senate energy debate. Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) this week will start circulating a draft of their narrowed plan as they try to convince Democratic leaders to include a carbon pricing component in a broad energy package that may hit the Senate floor next week. “I am very optimistic that we can pass something here that deals with energy and gets us started in the...

Political reaction yesterday to Presi dent Obama's prime-time Gulf oil spill speech was surprisingly biparti san: Democrats and Republicans alike thought the address was a dud. Especially when Obama veered from the spill and -- in true Rahm Emanuel "never let a crisis go to waste" style -- began pitching his energy-regulation scheme. Which essentially amounts to the discredited notion of cap-and-trade (though Obama, at his pollster's urging, no longer uses the term, which more accurately should be called cap-and-tax, anyway). "If my house is on fire, I don't need the fire chief telling me that I shouldn't have built...

Sens. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) unveiled a compromise climate bill Wednesday, hoping public concern over the massive oil spill in the gulf will boost the measure's long-shot chances for passage. While the bill is different from the House-passed climate bill in several respects -- it seeks carbon reductions from separate sectors of the economy rather than imposing a nationwide cap, and it provides more incentives for both new nuclear power and offshore oil drilling -- it still faces a steep hill in attracting the 60 votes needed for passage. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)...

We all remember how painful it was when gasoline prices surged past four bucks a gallon a couple years ago. The price is now around $3 a gallon. That steep sum will seem like chump change if global-warming alarmists in Congress have their way. Long-anticipated climate-change legislation is scheduled to be unveiled in the Senate today. The ostensible purpose is to clean the air by cutting carbon emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. If the bill becomes law, though, consumers will get smoked as they are forced to pay more for a fill-up. Backers of this measure are...

The 210,000-gallon-a-day oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico may soon claim another victim: the climate-change bill. It’s ironic. But it’s true, nonetheless. Climate-change legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting clean energy is at risk because of an oil spill.

NLPC is sponsoring a PepsiCo shareholder proposal asking for a report on the company’s lobbying priorities. At the PepsiCo annual tomorrow in Plano, Texas, I will argue that the company’s lobbying priorities are seriously out of whack. I will cite PepsiCo’s membership in U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a coalition of corporations and environmental groups. USCAP’s mission is to “quickly enact strong national legislation to require significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.” The House of Representatives has obliged in the form of the Waxman-Markey bill that would destroy over 1.1 million jobs, hike electricity rates 90 percent, and reduce the...

Monday's unveiling of a compromise Senate climate bill was postponed on Saturday, Democratic Senator John Kerry said, after a dispute arose over unrelated immigration reform legislation. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said earlier on Saturday he would have to pull out of the bipartisan climate change effort because of concerns Democrats would push forward with a debate on immigration reform, rather than the climate change bill, in the Senate. Kerry said he hoped to keep working for passage of a climate bill. He said that after more than six months of detailed meetings with Graham and independent Senator Joseph Lieberman, "we...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Details of an oil industry tax are being filled in Congress as part of an upcoming U.S. climate control bill, sparking a spirited lobbying campaign this week over how the revenues from that tax would be used. A Senate source familiar with the draft legislation told Reuters that the new fee "will be assessed at the terminal rack," — where refined oil products await shipment to retail gasoline stations and other end points. But the source added that no final decisions had yet been made on whether revenues from the tax would be deposited into the Highway...

Although they never should have been a part of it in the first place, three major companies have exited the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a coalition of corporations and environmental groups. USCAP’s mission is to “quickly enact strong national legislation to require significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.” The House has obliged and the result, the Waxman-Markey bill, is too strong for both the Senate and the American people. Instead of taking a principled stand against massive government intervention in the energy economy, corporate executives argued that global warming legislation was coming anyway, so it was better to...

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday said that there is room on the busy Senate calendar to bring up a sweeping energy and climate change bill this spring. His comments – in a speech before a geothermal energy group in New York – come amid speculation that tackling controversial plans to impose limits on greenhouse gases may fall by the wayside. “We have a lot on our plate. We have to finish reforming health insurance and Wall Street, and also must help bring Americans out of unemployment. But we are not so busy that we can’t find the time...

The perils of steering a climate bill through the Senate in an election year have been well-documented in this space and elsewhere. Getting a bill back through the House, which narrowly approved a sweeping measure in June, might not be a picnic either. Take Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), who chairs the House Agriculture Committee. Back in June, Peterson blocked the bill before winning a series of concessions to the agriculture industry. This included language that blocks EPA from weighing certain land use changes when measuring the “lifecycle” greenhouse gas emissions of ethanol. He voted for the bill. But now Peterson says...

An aggressive White House push on jobs and deficit reduction in 2010 may be yet another sign that climate-change legislation will stay on the back burner next year. “There is a growing chorus in the party that thinks we should be doing more to spur job creation and not necessarily tackle cap and trade right now,” said a moderate Democratic Senate aide. White House officials told POLITICO on Friday that President Barack Obama plans curb new domestic spending beyond jobs programs and focus on cutting the federal deficit next year. In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid has hinted that...

LONDON (Reuters) - U.N. negotiators will next month put farming onto the radar of climate regulations for the first time, but governments face aggressive lobbies and gaps in the science proving the extent of agricultural emissions. "They're lucky to have got away with it this far, it should be included in a U.S. climate bill and in Copenhagen," said Robert Goodland, formerly of the World Bank and co-author of a report which last month caused a stir by estimating that farm livestock account for 51 percent of all global greenhouse gases. The estimate included carbon emissions from burning trees to...

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon urged the Senate to move forward on climate change before international climate talks in Copenhagen this December. “I would sincerely hope the Senate will take domestic action as soon as possible,” he said, after meeting with a bipartisan group of Senators on Tuesday afternoon. Ki-Moon said that he recognized the Senate was unlikely to pass a climate bill before the December negotiations, but he encouraged the Senate to at least draft broad principals laying out greenhouse gas reductions targets and other pollution reducing actions the United States could take. “They may have agreed to...

Here’s how: The bills require a federal declaration of a “climate emergency” if world greenhouse gas levels reach 450 parts per million. Guess what? The Pacific Northwest National Lab says it is a virtual certainty that level will be reached within a few months. The bill then requires the president to “direct all Federal agencies to use existing statutory authority to take appropriate actions...to address shortfalls" in achieving needed greenhouse gas reductions. The Examiner's David Freddoso reports that Sen. David Vitter, R-LA, is holding a news conference later today concerning this provision. Vitter wonders if companies that support cap-and-trade in...

Even before a Senate committee could begin marking up the "Kerry-Boxer" climate bill, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) himself announced a new "track" of negotiations over climate policy that makes his original bill look somewhat irrelevant. Kerry, appearing at the U.S. Capitol with Sens. Lindsay O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), said the three legislators would work with business groups and the White House to forge a compromise climate measure that could get 60 votes in the Senate. These negotiations would be separate from the work that six different Senate committees are doing on climate legislation, including the...

Apparently, rules don’t apply to zealots-with-gavels convinced they were put on this planet to secure its salvation. Lacking a single occupied Republican seat in the room, Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has nonetheless moved markup of the climate bill she cosponsors ahead for a second straight day.  And in doing so, the ever-arrogant eco-crusader appears to be walking a thin green legal line. Here’s the latest: Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) arrived at the EPW hearing room this morning to restate the GOP position that markup should be postponed pending comprehensive cost analysis. The...

In an open letter to Obama, Florida Republican, Vern Buchanan (R-FL 13th) warns about dangers of the Copenhagen treaty and John Holdren. Climate Treaty in Copenhagen- Bad News for the USATo: President Barack Obama Sen. Bill Nelson Sen. George LeMieux Rep. Vern Buchanan November 1, 2009 DO NOT SIGN President Obama, do not sign this Climate treaty, Not even in Symbolism..... This is Bad News times Twenty for the United States. This is a Door we Do Not Wish to Be Left Open. There is a great risk of Global Government This entire treaty is an Attack on the United...

There's much debate about the efficacy of controlling pollutants with economic incentives, also known as cap-and-trade. Its advocates dress it up with a lot of moral indignation. Cap-and-trade would not achieve its goals—and it would put America on a ruinous course. Here's why: The price tag would be huge. Cap-and-trade would raise prices for the energy we get from natural gas, coal, and oil. Putting a tax on carbon means that every American who flips a light switch, turns a car key, or buys anything made or shipped in this country will pay more. The Treasury Department estimates that the...

All across the world, collections of global-warming protestors financed by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund gathered on October 24 to call for forceful “climate change” action at the United Nations summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, this December. Most of the gatherings were minuscule, even in big cities, but the effort did receive widespread publicity. According to organizers cited by Agence France-Presse, over 5,000 demonstrations were held in more than 180 countries. The protestors rallied around the motif of “350” — the supposed level of carbon dioxide in parts per million that some scientists claim is an acceptable ceiling. They carried signs and...

Senate Democrats are looking to restart momentum for climate legislation, which has taken a backseat to healthcare. The Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee next week opens debate on the Kerry-Boxer bill with three hearings over three days in which more than 50 witnesses are scheduled to testify. Not much has happened since the House passed its climate bill in late June on a tight vote, but Senate Democrats hope to make progress on one of the administration’s highest priorities before global climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December. One marathon session set for Thursday on the Clean Energy...

A former Clinton State Department official named Nigel Purvis laid out the extremely detailed blue-print for passing climate-treaties without Senate approval in a paper he wrote entitled "Paving the Way for U.S. Climate Leadership: The Case for Executive Agreements and Climate Protection Authority.” written in April 2008. That document is attached to this email, and can also be downloaded directly from [link to www.rff.org] -- It is worth noting that Mr. Purvis is now an Obama aid. The paper written by Mr. Purvis explores “whether some international agreements are inherently treaties under the Constitution, or whether the President and Congress...

The ranking Republican on the Senate's energy committee on Saturday signaled she could vote for a revised version of Democrats' forthcoming cap-and-trade bill. In an interview to air Sunday on C-SPAN, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) explained she would "keep her mind open" during debate over the hotly contested carbon-reduction proposal, a version of which has already passed the House. The Alaska Republican also suggested she could vote for the final bill if it expands domestic oil drilling and better funds nuclear power. "When you see changes to the land coming about ... what is causing the loss of...

On October 14, Lord Christopher Monckton, a noted climate change expert, gave a presentation at Bethel College in St. Paul, MN in which he issued a dire warning regarding the United Nations Climate Change Treaty which is scheduled to be signed in Copenhagen in December 2009. .. Video 4:11 min

Who's on the Nobel Committee? And What Do They Really Want from Obama? What do the Norwegian Nobel arbiters expect to collect from President Barack Obama? They have just awarded him a peace prize which Obama himself suggests was extended on credit — or so he implied in telling reporters Friday morning that he wasn’t sure he’d done enough to deserve it.

'In recent years, many Americans have had cause to wonder whether decisions made at EPA were guided by science and the law, or whether those principles had been trumped by politics," declared Lisa Jackson in San Francisco last week. The Environmental Protection Agency chief can't stop kicking the Bush Administration, but the irony is that the Obama EPA is far more "political" than the Bush team ever was.

Do We Really Need A Green Job Czar? The Spanish government's renewable energy initiatives have destroyed 2.2 jobs for every new "green" job created, concludes a new study by economics professor Gabriel Calzada of King Juan Carlos University in Madrid. Calzada says American jobs will suffer the same fate if the United States similarly attempts to promote renewable energy at the expense of conventional energy sources.

Real goal was never to control the climate. It was always to control energy use, lives, jobs, economies, transportation and housing Of course, the real goal was never to control the climate. It was always to control energy use, lives, jobs, economies, transportation and housing – and usher in a new era of high tax global governance. The American people are increasingly saying they’re not ready to grant that power to Obama Gore & Company.

If you can't muzzle the whistleblower, try to marginalize him. That seems to be the strategy of the Obama administration, which is showing that its commitment to liberal ideology trumps its pledge to foster open government. In June, the Competitive Enterprise Institute made waves by releasing internal e-mails from the Environmental Protection Agency. In those messages, a top administrator told a key researcher that the researcher's new report would not be released. Why? Because it does "not help the legal or policy case" for a controversial decision to treat global warming as a health hazard. In short, because researcher Alan...

The climate battle will be waged in the ornate setting of the U.S. Senate this fall, but for now the fight is taking place in humbler locales like local libraries, college campuses and county fairs as supporters and critics struggle for hearts and minds beyond the beltway. On the heels of campaigns against the climate-change bill launched by oil companies and other opposing interests, unions and environmental groups kicked off a 22-state swing with a rally in Cleveland, Ohio, on Thursday to sell the bill’s environmental and economic benefits. More may be riding on their ability to rally a grassroots...

Add another climate bill cost estimate to the growing pile. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF) released a study Wednesday that found under a high-cost scenario the House global warming bill could reduce economic growth by 2.4 percent and cost 2 million jobs by 2030. Environmentalists were quick to criticize the study for underselling the development of climate friendly sources of power and not releasing other assumptions NAM and ACCF fed into the computer model to get their economic forecast, which takes more of a glass-half-empty view than recent governmental reports. But...

Agriculture's role in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions could take a backseat to debate about the higher costs farmers could face under the climate legislation as the Senate Agriculture Committee hears from farm groups and key officials in the Obama administration on Wednesday. Republican senators throughout the ranks of the Agriculture Committee have made it clear since last week that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson had better come armed with detailed data on what kind of costs farmers may face. Some senators want detailed information broken down by commodity and state. The climate bill passed...

~ EXCERPT ~ When House Democratic leaders were rounding up votes Friday for the massive climate-change bill, they paid special attention to their colleagues from Ohio who remained stubbornly undecided. They finally secured the vote of one Ohioan, veteran Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Toledo, the old-fashioned way. They gave her what she wanted - a new federal power authority, similar to Washington state's Bonneville Power Administration, stocked with up to $3.5 billion in taxpayer money available for lending to renewable energy and economic development projects in Ohio and other Midwestern states.

Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy. Smoot-Hawley will seem like a speed bump...As we've said before, capping emissions is capping economic growth. An analysis of Waxman-Markey by the Heritage Foundation projects that by 2035 it would reduce aggregate gross domestic product by $7.4 trillion. In an average year, 844,000 jobs would be destroyed, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by almost 2 million. Consumers would pay through the nose as electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket, as President Obama once...

Democrats on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue and beyond launched a massive last-minute push for votes on the climate change bill that is scheduled to hit the House floor on Friday. “It’s the most extraordinary whip effort I’ve ever seen,” one veteran Democratic staffer said. From the White House lawn to the bowels of the Capitol to the hills just east of Nashville, Democrats pulled out all the stops and employed their biggest guns to whip dozens of still-undecided members. Although supporters of the bill to lower carbon emissions expressed confidence that the universe of undecided votes was shrinking in...

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) doubts that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democrats will pass their climate change bill this week. "I don't know whether it's going to come up or not ... [but] I don't think they have the votes," Boehner said Thursday. Boehner declined to predict how many Republicans would vote for the bill, but voiced confidence that most Republicans would oppose it. Rep. Mary Bono Mack (Calif.), who voted for the bill in committee, is the only Republican who has voiced public support for the measure. Democratic leaders are working hard to deliver support for the...

More and more Democrats are ready to vote against Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s climate change bill, according to a congressional committee chairman who opposes his leader. The House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) said Wednesday that he’s at an impasse with the lead sponsor of a climate change bill strongly backed by Pelosi (D-Calif.), and that his list of Democratic members who would join him in voting against the measure is growing rather than shrinking. “We’re stuck,” Peterson said regarding a clash he’s had with House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) over a number of issues in...

Henry Waxman said this about his own climate bill. “I certainly don’t claim to know everything in this bill, I know that we have left it to uh, we rely very heavily on the scientists.” WHY can these so-called leaders write bills and then claim they do not know everything in the bill? They redirect and lay responsibility on other entities such as scientists in this case rather than taking responsibility and demonstrating knowledge of their own proposed legislation. READ THE BILL!!!!

Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a global warming bill that would have required major reductions in greenhouse gases, pushing debate over the world's biggest environmental concern to next year for a new Congress and president. Democratic leaders fell a dozen votes short of getting the 60 needed to end a Republican filibuster on the measure and bring the bill up for a vote, prompting Majority Leader Harry Reid to pull the legislation from consideration. The Senate debate focused on bitter disagreement over the expected economic costs of putting a price on carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas that comes from...