Senate Dems retreat on global warming – don’t be fooled

July 23, 2010 05:44


But don’t be fooled. This ‘oil spill’ legislation will include many of the ‘green’ wish list that would have been in the cap and trade bill. This is a feint. Harry Reid called in a ‘neuroscience’ professor to figure out how to use the right words to get this done. Coal state Democrats are preventing any carbon tax or cap in the bill but everything else will get pushed through as a response to the oil crisis. ~ Editor

By: Susan Ferrechio at Washington Examiner

Lacking the requisite 60 votes, Senate Democrats shelved plans to take up an aggressive energy and global warming bill before the August recess and will instead settle on a much smaller bill that deals with the Gulf oil spill and some smaller “green” initiatives.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., broke the news to the Democratic caucus on Thursday that the bill he plans to write will not include a cap on carbon emissions, nor will it set a renewable energy standard.

Reid emerged from the meeting flanked by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and President Obama’s climate change czar, Carol Browner, to tell reporters that the blame lay squarely on the shoulders of Republicans, who refuse to supply a crucial 60th vote. Democrats control just 59 votes.

“Many of us want to do a broad, comprehensive bill that creates jobs and breaks our addiction to foreign oil,” Reid said. “Unfortunately at the time we don’t have a single Republican to work with in achieving this goal.”

The GOP is wholly opposed to a bill that would cap carbon on the utility sector, a move they fear might raise energy prices and hurt business.

But Democrats had problems getting their own caucus to buy into an ambitious climate change bill, with many moderate and coal state Democrats refusing to back a carbon cap, particularly in the months leading up to an election that threatens to unseat several of them.

FULL STORY



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