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Senate Debate Halted While Clerks Read 400-Page Bill Aloud June 04, 2008 2:30 PM ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf Reports: Senator Barack Obama may have clinched the Democratic Presidential nomination calling for a politics of "change," but none of that rubbed off on his colleagues after a brief visit to Capitol Hill today. Obama spent 16 minutes in the Senate, greeting colleagues and voting on a budget resolution. It was all smiles, handshakes and back-slaps for Obama as he greeted senators from both parties. But not long after he left, Democrats and Republicans were locked again in partisan gamesmanship. Democrats...

How does Washington plan to resolve our energy problems and control atmospheric temperatures? Well, how do they fix anything? By proposing a gargantuan boondoggle. A "cap and trade" bill, one that will supposedly cut 66 percent of our emissions by 2050, is being debated in Congress this week. To begin with, proponents of America's Climate Security Act have been misleading the public by claiming that cap and trade is a "market- based" solution. In truth, cap and trade does to the market what "American Idol" does to music. The idea sounds harmless: government caps emissions, and corporations trade the allotted...

We wrote here about the economic disaster that goes by the name Lieberman-Warner, the carbon cap-and-trade system now being considered by the Senate. We posted a diagram created by the Chamber of Commerce that exposed the ludicrous complexity and intrusiveness of the proposal. The bill, as amended by Barbara Boxer, has now gotten even worse. Boxer's amendment adds more than 300 regulations and mandates. The Chamber has accordingly prepared another version of their chart that reflects Boxer's changes. It is a remarkable document; click to enlarge: This morning, four Republican Senators held a press conference on Lieberman-Warner. Jim Inhofe of...

For conservatives who would like to think the whole government should be handed over to the liberals for a few years until the Reagan wing of the Republican Party can get its act together, a quick look at a monstrosity under consideration by Congress is in order. Liberal Democrats and "green" Republicans are proposing a massive reorganization of the American economy to fight so-called global warming. Worse yet, proponents of this bill are attempting to sell this eco-socialism as a "market-based" policy, and their allies in the national media are going along with the charade.

This week, the Senate debates America’s Climate Security Act (S. 2191), sponsored by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I., Conn.) and John Warner (R., Va). The Lieberman-Warner bill (LW) would restrict energy use to combat global warming. Like global warming itself, the bill has undergone considerable hype and little hard-nosed analysis. Several myths need to be dispelled.Myth #1: LW wouldn’t be expensive. Fact: LW works like a massive energy tax. By restricting carbon-dioxide emissions from coal, oil, and natural gas — with a freeze at 2005 levels beginning in 2012, to a 70-percent reduction in 2050 — the bill forces down supply...

Cap-and-trade is a huge tax hidden in a bureaucratic labyrinth of opaque permit transactions An unprecedentedly radical government grab for control of the American economy will be debated this week when the Senate considers saving the planet by means of a cap-and-trade system to ration carbon emissions. The plan is co-authored (with John Warner) by Joe Lieberman, an ardent supporter of John McCain, who supports Lieberman’s legislation and recently spoke about “the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring.” Speaking of endless troubles, “cap-and-trade” comes cloaked in reassuring rhetoric about...

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=4baad06a-802a-23ad-42d7-350ee0918ec4&Issue_id= Posted By Marc Morano ? 6:09 PM ET ? Marc_Morano@EPW.Senate.Gov Boxer Claims Recession is Best Time to Raise Energy Costs Read More About the Impacts of Lieberman-Warner: www.epw.senate.gov/lieberman-warnerbillexposed Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the chairman of the Environment & Public Works Committee, declared in her opening floor speech today that a ?recession is the precise time to" enact the Lieberman-Warner global warming cap-and-trade bill because it ?brings us hope.? The Lieberman-Warner global warming bill would have many consequences, but ?hope? is not among them. The Cleveland Plain Dealer editorialized on June 1, that the bill "will just bore new holes...

  Major policy decisions require weighing of trade­offs, and that is especially true with regard to global warming. Clearly, the American people would not benefit from measures designed to address global warming that do more economic harm than environ­mental good. For this reason, it is important to weigh the consequences of any proposed climate legislation: both the costs to the American people and the bene­fits in the form of reduced adverse impacts from glo­bal warming.This Backgrounder is a companion to the Center for Data Analysis (CDA) report titled "The Economic Costs of the Lieberman–Warner Climate Change Leg­islation."[1] It concludes that...

Global Warming On the Rocks by: Emily Ham, June 02, 2008 As the congressional curtains open on the Lieberman-Warner “Climate Security Act,” the subjects of higher taxes, job expansion and economic growth are taking center stage in many people’s minds. The act, which deals with controlling levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) produced by the United States in order to protect the government will be open for Senate discussion for the few following weeks. And while many agree measures must be taken to protect the environment from carbon dioxide levels and such, some people are seeing a flaw in the act...

The current plan for dealing with global warming would trigger a lobbying frenzy to win new subsidies and preferential treatment. Robert J. Samuelson NEWSWEEK Updated: 12:42 PM ET May 31, 2008 We'll have to discard the adage "everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it." In this era of global warming, it is inoperative, because the whole point of controlling greenhouse-gas emissions is to do something about the weather. This promises to be hard and perhaps futile, but there are good and bad ways of attempting it. One of the bad ways is "cap and trade." Unfortunately,...

WASHINGTON - An unprecedentedly radical government grab for control of the American economy will be debated this week when the Senate considers saving the planet by means of a cap-and-trade system to ration carbon emissions. The plan is co-authored (with John Warner) by Joe Lieberman, an ardent supporter of John McCain, who supports Lieberman's legislation and recently spoke about "the central facts of rising temperatures, rising waters and all the endless troubles that global warming will bring." Speaking of endless troubles, "cap-and-trade" comes cloaked in reassuring rhetoric about the government merely creating a market, but government actually would create a...

Some facts on climate legislationPublished on Sunday, Jun 01, 2008 Here are questions about the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act that the Senate is to begin debating this week: Q: What is it? A: The bill by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., would create a ''cap-and-trade'' program designed to reduce environmentally harmful carbon dioxide emissions by power companies, big manufacturers, refineries and other businesses. Q: How would it work? A: Affected companies would be forced to meet new limits — the ''cap'' part — on their emissions. They would have to reduce emissions by about 2 percent each...

If there indeed is a second Great Depression to come, this will be the government measure that guarantees it arrives with a devastating gut punch. The U.S. Senate returns to session this week and will take up something deceptively labeled "America's Climate Security Act of 2008." It's a bill designed to combat man-made global warming. But anybody with a brain should be able to understand that the only thing this bill would "secure" would be our national demise. Not only is it one of those sadly classic bureaucratic "solutions" in search of a problem, it is a sad exercise...

May 28, 2008 Posted By Marc Morano – 3:33 PM EST – Marc_Morano@EPW.Senate.Gov New York Times Makes Factual Blunder Paper erroneously claims Senate last voted on global warming bill in 2003 A New York Times editorial today arguing in favor of the Senate’s upcoming mandatory global warming cap-and-trade legislation committed a blatant factual error. The May 28 Times editorial incorrectly claimed, “The Senate last addressed climate change in 2003 when it cast 43 votes in favor of a bill sponsored by Mr. McCain and Mr. Lieberman.” (LINK) In their apparently hasty Google search of Senate history, the editors at the...

An influential coalition of Fortune 500 companies and environmental groups that was formed to support climate-change legislation has splintered over the Lieberman-Warner bill that is headed next week to the Senate floor. The U.S. Climate Action Partnership formed last year won't take a position on the bill, although nine of its members - including General Electric (GE, Fortune 500), Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500) and four utility companies - signed a letter to senators backing the legislation. The letter, also signed by big environmental groups and obtained by Fortune, says: "Prompt action on climate change is essential to protect America's economy,...

On June 2, the United States Senate will begin debate on America's Climate Security Act (S. 2191), sponsored by Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA). The Lieberman-Warner bill (LW) would restrict energy use to combat global warming. Like global warming itself, the bill has been the subject of considerable hype and little hard-nosed analysis. For this reason, there are several myths about it that need to be dispelled.Myth #1: LW would not be expensive.Fact: Simply put, LW works like a massive energy tax. By restricting carbon dioxide emissions from coal, oil, and natural gas--with a freeze at...

Climate Bill Underlines Obstacles to Capping Greenhouse GasesBy Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, June 1, 2008; Page A12 When the Senate takes up landmark climate legislation this week, its backers can be sure of just one thing: The obstacles they face show how hard it will be to enact a meaningful cap on greenhouse gases -- probably under the next administration. The next administration, not this one, because even supporters of the complex, extensively negotiated 494-page bill say that there is little chance that it will win Senate approval, less chance that the House will...

Presidential Candidates May Miss Climate Vote Sen. John McCain walked through the wilderness that surrounds Chester Morse Lake with state and local officials North Bend, Wash., May 13, 2008, to call attention to his climate change agenda. (Associated Press)Updated 6:48 p.m.By Juliet EilperinLOS ANGELES -- While the three remaining presidential candidates have touted climate change as a central theme in their campaigns, all of them may miss next week's critical vote when the Senate considers a landmark bill imposing mandatory limits on greenhouse gases. With the debate set to begin Monday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will miss the entire...

Introduction and summaryThe United States Senate will soon begin debate on America's Climate Security Act of 2007, popularly referred to as the Lieberman-Warner bill after its chief sponsors, Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA).The legislation ostensibly is intended to cut U.S. industrial emissions of greenhouse gases in an effort to reduce the risk of catastrophic global warming.  Senator Lieberman has estimated the bill would reduce overall U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by up to 63% by 2050.1  The policies the legislation would impose, however, have little hope of meeting this target and would likely have little impact on...

The Economics of America’s Climate Security Act of 2007S.2191, Lieberman-Warner Climate Bill White Paper   Senator James M. InhofeRanking MemberUnited States Senate Committee onEnvironment and Public WorksMay 2008 National EconomyFamiliesPoorest Bear the Biggest Costs of Lieberman-WarnerIntroductionThe issue of climate change is now at the forefront of American environmental policy.  While the science behind the causes of recent warming trends has been argued vigorously in the past, the debate over the economic costs of addressing this issue has been relatively quiet until now.  However, on this issue there is little to debate at all. Leaders from both sides of the...