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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,...

The silver lining in the cloud of high energy prices is the growing public support for domestic development of natural resources. Opinion polls, including data from California, show Americans are increasingly inclined to support drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf and in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In an effort to increase the domestic supply of oil and also to pressure Congressional Democrats not to extend the offshore ban, which expires September 30, on July 14 President Bush eliminated the executive order preventing offshore drilling. Not surprisingly, Democratic congressional leaders and their special interest allies oppose adding new areas for...

Why is Congress so unpopular? Because it is often intent upon doing things that will make life in America much worse. The most important example is continued blockage of access to America's energy resources. No new nuclear power plants have been permitted in decades; no new oil refineries; no additional drilling off the coast of Alaska, California, Florida or parts of the Gulf of Mexico where there are huge amounts of useable energy; and continuing opposition to building liquefied natural gas facilities.

Catholic Climate Change by: Malcolm A. Kline, July 11, 2008 For many millennia, Catholic school children could find inspiration in their own names because likely they shared them with a sanctified namesake, or patron saint. St. Anthony, for example, is the patron saint of the lost and found. Now, it seems, even the saints have become political totems. “In the spirit of their founder, Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology, the Franciscan Friars of Holy Name Province recognize the seriousness that the challenge of climate change presents, especially to the poor and marginalized,” the bulletin of the parish...

Opponents of massive new energy taxes and regulations breathed a small sigh of relief last month when the Lieberman-Warner climate-tax bill went down in flames on the Senate floor. Even 10 Democrats broke from the party line and voted against it, writing that they would have opposed the bill on final passage. Unfortunately, power-mad bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency remain undaunted. The EPA is expected today to release a document that blueprints a dizzying array of greenhouse-gas regulatory programs under dozens of different provisions of the 1970 Clean Air Act. The document, called an “Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,”...

Thankfully, cap and trade – aka the Warner-Lieberman “America's Climate Security Act of 2007” – suffered a quick death in the Senate this year.  Cap and trade is an inferior, anti-growth, environmental policy that imposes significant costs on our economy and people’s lives.  Cap and trade allows Congress to pass a huge tax increase while never formally voting to do so.  The large tax increase will diminish our overall economic vitality and reduce everyone’s welfare. Unfortunately, like a horror movie villain that keeps rising from the dead, the death of cap and trade is only temporary because cap and trade...

"Another Failure on Climate Change," the June 11 editorial about the recent Senate debate on global warming legislation, was off the mark. Questioning the scheduling of the debate because of high gas prices makes little sense. If gas prices don’t go down, should we never address global warming? Of course not. Many Republicans used gas prices as a reason not to act, even though the long-term solution to gas prices lies in the new green technologies that will come to the fore once we do act. In addition, our bill sets aside more than $2 trillion that can be...

Dems Running on Empty by Sen. James Inhofe What a difference three years makes: In 2005, I led the charge against a massive global warming cap-and-trade bill. It was a lonely battle with few GOP members willing to join me on the Senate floor to publicly oppose it. Fast forward to June 2008: Not only was I joined by dozens of GOP Senators, but nearly 30% of the Democratic Senators rebelled against their leadership and opposed the Boxer Climate Tax Bill. In the end, Senator Boxer only had at most 35 Democratic Senators willing to vote for final passage on...

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...

Senator Byrd In Step with West Virginians, Poll ShowsByrd Opposes Lieberman-Warner Global Warming Bill Rejected by Overwhelming Majority in Region For Release: June 6, 2008 Washington, DC - Senator Robert Byrd, who opposes America's Climate Security Act presently scheduled for a key Senate vote at 9 AM Friday, is in sync with a majority of West Virginians, says a poll released by the National Center for Public Policy Research. The survey found 64% of likely voters in mid-Atlantic states (WV, VA, MD, PA, NY, NJ and DE) oppose spending more for gasoline to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 71% oppose spending...

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...

June 11, 2008 Fact Check on Boxer's Climate Tax Bill Claims Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) made several assertions during her June 10 floor speech on the failed climate tax bill and energy issues. Below is a sampling of some of Boxer’s claims, followed by fact checks: Boxer Claim: “We had 46 Democrats for dealing with global warming.” Fact: Over 20% of Senate Democrats opposed the Climate Tax Bill. Boxer had at most only 35 Democratic Senators willing to vote "yes" on final passage. A letter signed on June 6 by ten Democratic Senators explicitly stated they “cannot support final passage”...

Over the past 13 days, over 300,000 [479,000 at last count] Americans have signed a petition calling on their government to act immediately to ease high gas prices. These concerned Americans have sent a simple, powerful message to Congress: Drill Here Drill Now Pay Less My message today is aimed directly at the nearly one-third of a million Americans who have joined this campaign: Instead of acting to lower gas prices, your representatives in the Senate began debate yesterday on a measure that will increase gas prices. Instead of heeding your voice, Congress is acting in defiance of it. Instead...

From its name, cap-and-trade legislation sounds harmless enough. Unfortunately, cap-and-trade would be more aptly called "tax and trade" or "tax and spend" and it is far from harmless, posing a serious threat to our economy and our personal freedoms. A parliamentary maneuver was used on Friday to kill debate in the Senate, but this is only the beginning. With many national leaders, influential lobbyists and powerful special-interest groups pushing hard for a cap-and-trade bill, there is no doubt that this is going to be a hot debate in the months to come as well. The bill in question is called...

Fellow Republicans in the Senate on Friday issued a stern message — a rebuke, really — to the man who will lead the party in November, by blocking a bill that sought to establish a noxious cap-and-trade system to combat “global warming.” Sen. John McCain went on record last month in support of such a program that would, in the long run, force Americans to pay for the simple act of emitting carbon dioxide. To their credit, foes of this measure, the handiwork of Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Democrat Barbara Boxer of California and outgoing Republican John Warner...

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...

With the failure of the Lieberman-Warner global-warming bill in the Senate last Friday, I am reminded of the long and grand tradition the scientific community has had in promoting “bad science.” (It is mere coincidence that the acronym for this term is “BS.”) While the failure of the carbon cap-and-trade legislation was largely a result of economic concerns over what it would cost the country, its proponents will no doubt return next year with claims that no price is too great to save us from planetary destruction.

Thank you for contacting me regarding climate change. I appreciate hearing from you. I believe that we must address the causes of climate change immediately. The global average surface temperature is rising, glaciers and sea ice are melting, and the overwhelming majority of scientists agree that our accelerating use of fossil fuels is a significant part of the problem. As you know, the Senate is considering climate change legislation. I believe a cap-and-trade system is the best and most flexible way of guaranteeing that the lowest cost measures for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are adopted first. We must also be...

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)...