USA Congress Warming to Climate Debate

USA Congress Warming to Climate Debate





    
 
January 2007  - Climate change took 
center stage at two Congressional hearings today, with a 
Senate committee providing a forum for senators to outline 
their positions on how the nation should tackle global warming 
and a House panel examining new allegations the Bush 
administration has censored climate scientists. 
The hearings are part of a strong push by Democrats to 
capitalize on growing momentum for global warming legislation 
and to pressure the White House to change its climate change 
policy. The Bush administration has refused to consider 
mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and at times has 
downplayed the scientific consensus that humans are largely 
responsible for global warming. 
"We are at a historic moment and I believe the tide is 
turning," said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat 
and chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works 
Committee. "A real consensus is coming together around this 
issue in a way that has never happened before. Scientists, the 
public, and even the Bush administration agree - global 
warming is real, and humans are making a serious 
contribution." 
Senator Barbara Boxer became a senator in January 1993 after 
10 years in the House of Representatives. (Photo courtesy 
Office of the Senator) 
States and local governments are aggressively moving to combat 
climate change, Boxer said, and the federal government follow 
suit. 
"We need to act soon, before we reach a tipping point when 
irreversible changes to the world we know may occur," Boxer 
said. 
Boxer has declared climate change a priority for her committee 
and said she will hold a series of hearings on the issue in 
the coming weeks. Tuesday's hearing was an unprecedented open 
microphone event, where any senator was permitted to speak 
about global warming. 
Three senators with presidential aspirations said time for 
action on global warming is long overdue. 
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was re-elected to her second 
term in the Senate in November 2006. (Photo courtesy Office of 
the Senator) 
Global warming is "an issue whose time has come," said Senator 
Hillary Rodham Clinton, a New York Democrat. "We need to get 
beyond the usual rhetoric and find some common ground." 
"If we look at where we are … we are not making progress," 
Clinton added. "Emissions are still going up – that is another 
of those inconvenient facts that need to be addressed." 
Senator Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat and presidential 
hopeful, called U.S. abdication of leadership on the issue 
"inexcusable." 
Senator Barack Obama was sworn into office January 4, 2005. 
(Photo courtesy Office of the Senator) 
Both Clinton and Obama have signed onto global warming 
legislation authored by Senators Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut 
Independent, and John McCain, an Arizona Republican who is 
expected to run for president. 
"Climate change is real and we must move quickly to address 
the problem in a meaningful and sustainable manner," McCain 
told the committee. 
On the other side of the Capitol, the House Committee on 
Oversight and Government Reform examined new allegations that 
the Bush administration, which opposes mandatory cuts to 
greenhouse gas emissions, has interfered with climate science 
in an effort to downplay the threat. 
A new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, UCS, and 
the Government Accountability Project, GAP, found that nearly 
half the 279 climate scientists who responded to a survey 
reported being pressured to delete references to "global 
warming" or "climate change" from scientific papers or reports 
and many said they were prevented from talking to the media or 
had their work edited. 
"The new evidence shows that political interference in climate 
science is no longer a series of isolated incidents but a 
system-wide epidemic," said Dr. Francesca Grifo, director of 
the UCS Scientific Integrity Program. 
The UCS/GAP report adds to other allegations the Bush 
administration has repeatedly interfered with federal 
government scientists who have tried to publish research or 
speak to the media about the reality and impacts of global 
warming. 
Representative Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and chair 
of the House Oversight Committee, said the White House 
continues to ignore his panel's bipartisan requests for 
documents on climate policy. 
Congressman Henry Waxman has represented a district including 
the cities of West Hollywood, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, 
and parts of Los Angeles since 1975. (Photo courtesy Office of 
the Congressman) 
"The committee isn't trying to obtain state secrets or 
documents that could affect our immediate national security," 
Waxman said. "We are simply seeking answers to whether the 
White House's political staff is inappropriately censoring 
impartial government scientists." 
Waxman said he would continue to press the White House for 
documents that contain evidence of administration attempts to 
mislead the public about the science of global warming. 
"All of us have a right to our own views about the seriousness 
of global warming," Waxman said. "But we don't have a right to 
our own science." 
At the Senate hearing, Boxer told colleagues that she favors 
global warming legislation that would cut greenhouse gas 
emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. 
The bill, introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders and cosponsored 
by Boxer, is the most aggressive piece of global warming 
legislation to date. 
"Some would say this bill goes too far, I disagree," Sanders, 
a Vermont Independent, told the committee. "If we are not 
strong, if we are not bold, if we are not aggressive, the 
planet we are going to leave to our children, grandchildren, 
great-grandchildren will be a very different planet than we 
enjoy and their quality of life will be greatly, greatly 
diminished." 
Boxer called the bill "the gold standard" but said her goal is 
to "get as close to that as possible." 
But Senator Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat, voiced concern 
that the Sanders/Boxer bill is too much, too fast. 
Senator Tom Carper was elected to a second term in the Senate 
in 2006. He is a former Delaware Governor and five-term 
Congressman. (Photo courtesy Office of the Senator) 
Carper, who called global warming "one of the gravest threats 
and greatest opportunities our nation faces," suggests first 
targeting electric utilities, which produce some 40 percent of 
the nation's greenhouse gas emissions. 
Carper said he and Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee 
Republican, plan to reintroduce legislation that would cap on 
carbon dioxide emissions from power plants at 2001 levels by 
2015. The bill would also sharply reduce sulfur dioxide, 
nitrogen oxide and mercury emissions from power plants. 
Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, is also 
supportive of a sector-by-sector approach and has introduced 
legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the 
electricity sector 25 percent below projected levels by 2020. 
"I believe we have to tailor cap and trade for each industry," 
she said. "There is no silver bullet." 
Cap and trade programs rest at the heart of two other pieces 
of global warming legislation under consideration in the 
Senate. The McCain/Lieberman bill aims to use such a plan to 
cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions two percent annually from 
power plants, industry and oil refineries. 
The bill intends to reduce emissions to 2004 levels by 2012 
and to further cut emissions 60 percent from 2004 levels by 
2050. 
A draft plan authored by Senator Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico 
Democrat, would employ a cap and trade program to stop the 
growth of carbon emissions by 2030. 
But some Republicans appear less than keen about caps on 
greenhouse gas emissions and there remain pockets of 
resistance to aggressive action on climate change. 
Senator Kit Bond entered the U.S. Senate in 1986 after two 
terms as governor of Missouri. (Photo courtesy Office of the 
Senator) 
Carbon caps will raise energy prices and "hit hardest those 
with the least ability to pay," said Senator Kit Bond, a 
Missouri Republican. 
"Cap proponents have not done their homework," Bond added. "We 
need to know how these proposals will impact states and we 
don't have those answers yet." 
Technology is the answer to the climate question, according to 
Senator Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican, who rejected the 
notion that Congress has failed to act. 
Senator Larry Craig took office in 1990 and was re-elected to 
the Senate in 1996 and 2002. (Photo courtesy Office of the 
Senator) 
Craig pointed to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, passed by a 
Republican-controlled Congress. He said the law has sparked 
new investment in clean energy technologies, highlighting new 
funding for nuclear power, coal gasification and biofuels. 
"To suggest we've done nothing is a false statement playing to 
the politics of today's emotion," Craig said. "This Congress 
moved in a substantial way in 2005 … we are leading the world 
toward cleaner technologies and we are the only country with 
the capability to do that." 
"A rush to climate change at this moment … is about an '08 
election," Craig added. "I am not at all frightened about our 
future and I'm not going to wring my hands and play politics 
with this issue. I'll vote for the right kinds of 
technologies, I'll not vote to penalize the consumers." 
Senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who has famously 
called global warming "a hoax," reminded colleagues why the 
Senate rejected the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that limits the 
emission of greenhouse gases by industrialized countries. 
From left, Senator James Inhofe, ranking member of the Senate 
Environment and Public Works Committee, EPW, and Chair Senator 
Barbara Boxer (Photo courtesy EPW) 
In 1997 the Senate unanimously approved a resolution that said 
lawmakers should not accept Kyoto or a similar agreement 
unless developing countries are affected and the economic 
impacts on the United States are minimal. 
"There are five bills out there and none of them complies with 
that mandate," said Inhofe, Boxer's predecessor as chair of 
the Senate committee. 
Inhofe has threatened to block legislation that requires 
greenhouse gas emission cuts. He argues the United States 
should not act until others agree to do the same. 
China is on pace to overtake the United States as the largest 
emitter of greenhouse gases by 2009 and is building "more than 
one coal plant every three days," Inhofe said. "India and 
Brazil are not far behind. If they are not part of any effort, 
then efforts to curb emissions are doomed to failure." 
But China, India and Brazil have all ratified the Kyoto 
Protocol. Although they have no legal obligation to cut 
greenhouse emissions a targeted amount during the current 
commitment period, all three countries have adopted measures 
to address climate change. 
Other lawmakers argue the United States has a moral obligation 
to lead. 
The concern about China and India "doesn't relieve us of our 
responsibility," Lieberman said. 
"We need a global solution but if the United States doesn't 
act, there won't be a solution," added Senator John Kerry, a 
Massachusetts Democrat. 
Kerry said he is preparing global warming legislation - using 
a cap on emissions - and warned colleagues that some 
scientists argue time is running out. 
"I know the science is accepted, but the urgency is not 
accepted here," Kerry said. "The urgency is just not 
accepted." 
"There are businesses that are showing greater urgency than 
the Congress," said Kerry, referring to a letter sent to 
Congress and the President earlier this month by the CEOs of 
10 large corporations, urging national legislation to limit 
greenhouse gas emissions. 
Global warming is already causing noticeable changes to the 
American landscape, said Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota 
Democrat. 
Elected for the first time in November 2006, Senator Amy 
Klobuchar was chief prosecutor for Minnesota's most populous 
county encompassing Minneapolis. (Photo courtesy EPW) 
"December in Minnesota felt more like October," Klobuchar 
said. "Our ice fishing seasons are shorter and our skiers and 
snowmobilers haven't seen much snow." 
Klobuchar said the "stakes as are high as they get" and called 
on her colleagues to recognize their responsibility to tackle 
the issue. 
"Every day Congress makes decisions that have a great impact 
on the American people and the people throughout the world," 
Klobuchar added. "Our decisions on global warming may well be 
the ones that have the most profound impacts on future 
generations and on the very fate of our Earth."