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The “Climate Security Act”, also known as Cap-and-Trade or the Lieberman-Warner Bill was being debated in the US Senate last year and came close to becoming law. For a bill that will literally ruin our economy forever, it did not get near the attention it deserved. Thanks to a Republican filibuster by Senator Mitch McConnell, Jeff Sessions, Larry Craig and a promise of a VETO by former President Bush it was stopped, but after the election everyone can expect it to raise its ugly head again. Hillary Clinton, Barbara Boxer, Patrick Lahey, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Barack Obama,...

America's Climate Security Act of 2007 (S. 2191), sponsored by Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA), is the latest and fastest-moving "cap and trade" bill introduced in Congress this year. All such climate change measures warrant careful scrutiny, as they would likely increase energy costs and do considerably more economic harm than environmental good. A Costly Proposition These measures would set a limit, or cap, on carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use. The effect of such a cap would be to impose rationing of coal, oil, and natural gas on the American economy. Each covered utility, oil...

R.I. Sen. Whitehouse sees silver lining in demise of global-warming bill01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, June 15, 2008 BY JOHN E. MULLIGAN Journal Washington Bureau whitehouse WASHINGTON — The Senate’s global-warming bill, many months in the making, is dead for this congress, but one of the senators involved in preparing it says the work wasn’t wasted. The next president, whether Barack Obama or John McCain, is likely to sign into law a bill, based on the one that faltered last week in the Senate, that is meant to curb the pace of climate change, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said in an...

Last week’s Senate debate over Lieberman-Warner – the America’s Climate Security Act – brought to national attention an under-recognized yet rising threat to liberty and limited government: corporate America. Several of the largest corporations worked with environmental special interest groups and left-wing politicians to pass so-called “cap-and-trade” legislation to address global warming concerns. By pushing for the legislation, these companies hoped to get revenue in the form of government subsidies plus accolades from the media for taking measures to “save the planet.” Never mind the impact on the everyday citizen, who pays for it all with higher taxes and increased...

WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, criticized the Democrats’ Consumer First Energy Act as a “No” Energy bill in floor remarks today. Senator Inhofe voted against cloture on the bill yesterday.   “The simple fact remains that until we explore and develop domestic energy resources and increase domestic refining capacity, the cost of gas at the pump will increase,” Senator Inhofe said. “As Oklahomans and Americans face $4 per-gallon gas prices, now is not the time for politics as usual – now is the time for common sense solutions. The Democrats’...

The most obvious lesson to be learned from the U.S. Senate's failure to mount any sort of grown-up debate on climate change last week is that the country needs a new occupant in the White House. By that we mean a president who not only understands and cares deeply about the issue - which both Senators Barack Obama and John McCain say they do, and which President Bush clearly does not - but who is also willing to invest the time and the political capital necessary to push good legislation through Congress. The bill that died in the Senate sought...

Lieberman Hopeful, Despite Global Warming Bill's FailureBy JESSE A. HAMILTON | Washington Bureau Chief June 7, 2008 WASHINGTON — - It wasn't really about winning, anyway. So nobody's crying over the Friday defeat of a Senate bill to counter global warming. Not even Sen. Joe Lieberman, whose name was on it. The bill to slash industrial carbon emissions — a massive and deep-reaching piece of legislation known as the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act — was the 2008 shot at doing something about the climate warming trend. As expected, it burned out. But the politics is in the details, and in...

Posted by Wonk Room 3 days ago From the Wonk Room.This morning, in the only order of business today, the Senate voted 48-36 to filibuster the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 3036) – 60 votes would have been required to achieve cloture and limit debate. 16 senators – six Democrats and ten Republicans – failed to vote. The vote was specifically on cloture for Senator Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA) substititute amendment (S.A. 4825) to the bill. Voting in the affirmative were 39 Democrats, seven Republicans, and two independents (Republicans and independents in ALL CAPS, senators up for re-election in bold, senators...

This week, the Senate opened debate on the most massive tax increase in history and a government takeover of private industry that makes Roosevelt's New Deal look tiny by comparison. The sheer chutzpah it takes to even offer such a thing is breathtaking, matched only by how frightened we all should be by the sheer economic destruction it would inevitably cause and the loss of freedom to which it would directly lead. I am speaking, of course, of the ever-so-benign-sounding “cap and trade” bill. This bill would criminalize the normal energy usage and that goes with a prosperous economy and...

For months, Democrats and the environmental lobby promoted last week's Senate global-warming debate as a political watershed. It was going to be the historic turning point in U.S. climate change policy. In the event, their bill collapsed in a little more than three days. Democrats failed to secure a majority, much less the 60 Senators necessary, for a procedural vote on Friday morning that would have allowed the real work of amending the bill to begin. By that point, Majority Leader Harry Reid had already made it plain that he wanted the bill off the floor as quickly as possible...

Grouped By Vote Position YEAs ---48 Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Collins (R-ME) Dodd (D-CT) Dole (R-NC) Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI) Feinstein (D-CA) Harkin (D-IA) Inouye (D-HI) Kerry (D-MA) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lieberman (ID-CT) Lincoln (D-AR) Martinez (R-FL) McCaskill (D-MO) Menendez (D-NJ) Mikulski (D-MD) Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Pryor (D-AR) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Salazar (D-CO) Sanders (I-VT) Schumer (D-NY) Smith (R-OR) Snowe (R-ME) Stabenow (D-MI) Sununu (R-NH) Tester (D-MT) Warner (R-VA) Webb (D-VA) Whitehouse (D-RI)...

As this week’s debate on climate change has unfolded, the American people and those watching us around the world had every reason to hope that we would act. Every credible scientist and expert believes action is necessary. This is critical and long overdue legislation that represents a good first step in addressing one of the most serious problems facing our generation. Like many of my Senate colleagues, I believe the legislation could have been made even better. Had there been a substantive Senate debate about some of the concerns with this bill, I believe the outcome could have generated broad...

U.S. carbon-capping climate bill dies in Senate 11 minutes ago U.S. legislation that would have set up a cap-and-trade system to limit climate-warming carbon emissions died on Friday after a procedural vote in the Senate. The bill aimed to cut total U.S. global warming emissions by 66 percent by 2050. Opponents said it would cost U.S. jobs and raise fuel prices in an already pinched American economy.

The Senate is debating a cap-and-trade proposal, and although it's unlikely to pass, it will return because all the major presidential candidates support the concept. Cap and trade extends the long government tradition of proclaiming lofty goals that are impossible to achieve. We've had "wars" against poverty, cancer and drugs; but poverty, cancer and drugs remain. President Bush called his landmark education law No Child Left Behind rather than the more plausible Few Children Left Behind. Carbon-based fuels (oil, coal, natural gas) provide about 85 percent of U.S. energy needs and generate most greenhouse gases. So, the simplest way to...

Legislation to combat global warming by putting limits on greenhouse gas emissions appeared headed to defeat as Democrats and Republicans accused each other of manipulating Senate rules to impede it. Opponents of the bill, co-authored by Sen. John Warner of Virginia, are "trying to fritter away the time" that Senate leaders had set aside for debate, Democratic Sen. John Kerry charged. On Wednesday, Republicans forced Democrats to have the 492-page bill read aloud on the floor, taking up more than nine hours. Majority Leader Harry Reid then scheduled a showdown vote for this morning on a motion to limit additional...

I'm sorry, fellows. Do you really think the world is filled with morons? When it comes to bait and switch, used car salesmen are paragons of virtue compared to this global warming crowd. Excuse me. It's not the ``global warming'' crowd now; it's the ``climate change'' crowd. Of course, they don't want any of us to own automobiles; so what the heck. They can act like used car salesmen because there will be more jobs for them as being advocates in the climate change arena.

Not all environmentalists are evil. Some truly believe in what they do and genuinely feel that Anthropogenic Global Warming is one of the greatest threats to human existence to ever emerge. Once I get over my misgivings that this concern is colossally overblown by some and pathetically manipulated by others, I can see why the people at Climate Progress, are seething at their “Progressive” Senators. It seems that these individuals have figured out that someone actually has to pay for reductions in CO2 emissions. Given that this activity is far less enjoyable than insulting Republicans for not caring enough about...

To: STATE EDITORS Contact: David Almasi, +1-202-543-4110, for National Center for Public Policy Research WASHINGTON, May 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the Senate is poised to vote on the Lieberman-Warner America's Climate Security Act, a new poll finds an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose the higher energy costs the bill would impose. The poll, conducted by the National Center for Public Policy Research, found 65% of Americans reject spending even a penny more for gasoline in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The number rejecting raising gas prices to combat global warming has increased by 17 percentage points -- or...

Mr. President, I don't think, with all due respect to my good friend, the majority leader, who decided to bring up this bill, that discussing one of the most massive bills we have seen is a waste of time. I don't think 30 hours is too long. The Wall Street Journal, which he dismisses--I don't dismiss it--said:    This is easily the largest income redistribution scheme since the income tax.    That was today's Wall Street Journal editorial. I wish to say, this is not a matter that should be lightly dealt with. Thirty hours is not enough. We need to spend a...

Senator James M. Inhofe Floor Statement Climate Debate June 2, 2008  Selected Excerpts of Senator Inhofe’s floor statement: We believe that any climate legislation must offer Clean Energy Solutions. Substantial investment must be made in new, clean energy technologies which generate more energy efficiently by producing less carbon, without the government picking winners and losers.  It makes good business sense to produce energy more efficiently and American companies are at the forefront of developing new technologies.  We support investments in solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and other innovative technologies.  But we must be careful not to interfere in the free market system or...