Act Now, Time Is Short! Climate Bill Preliminarily Passed In House, Battle In Senate Expected To Rage
NOTE: This was an early am TEST VOTE only
House Democrats narrowly won a key test vote Friday on sweeping legislation to combat global warming and usher in a new era of cleaner energy. Republicans said the bill included “the largest tax increase in American history.”
The vote was 217-205 to advance the White House-backed legislation to the floor, and 30 Democrats defected, a reflection of the controversy the bill sparked.
The legislation would impose limits for the first time on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas pollution from power plants, factories and refineries. It also would force a shift from coal and other fossil fuels to renewable and more efficient forms of energy. Supporters and opponents agreed the result would be higher energy costs, but disagreed widely on the impact on consumers.
President Obama has made the measure a top priority of his first year in office. The president, along with White House aides and House Democratic leaders, scrambled for the votes to assure passage. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has pledged to get the legislation passed before lawmakers leave on their July 4 vacation.
The Senate has yet to act on the measure, and a major struggle is expected.
In the House, the bill’s fate depended on the decisions of a few dozen fence-sitting Democrats, mainly conservatives and moderates from contested districts who feared the political ramifications of siding with the White House and their leadership on the measure.
Democrats left little or nothing to chance. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., confirmed by the Senate on Thursday to an administration post, put off her resignation from Congress until after the final vote on the climate change bill.
“The bill contains provisions to protect consumers, keep costs low, help sensitive industries transition to a clean energy economy and promote domestic emission reduction efforts,” the White House in a statement of support for the legislation.
Republicans saw it differently.
This “amounts to the largest tax increase in American history under the guise of climate change,” said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.
While the bill would impose a “cap-and-trade” system that would force higher energy costs, Republicans for weeks have branded it an energy tax on every American.
But Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said there was a “moral imperative to be good stewards of the earth.”
The legislation, totaling about 1,200 pages, would require the U.S. to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020 and about 80 percent by the next century.
U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are rising at about 1 percent a year and are predicted to continue increasing without mandatory caps.
Under the bill, the government would limit heat-trapping pollution from factories, refineries and power plants. It would distribute pollution allowances that could be bought and sold, depending on whether a facility exceeds the cap or makes greater pollution cuts than are required.
Obama on Thursday called it “a vote of historic proportions … that will open the door to a clean energy economy” and green jobs. “It will create millions of new jobs,” Pelosi insisted.
Both Obama and Pelosi preferred to focus on the economic issues rather than on what environmentalists view as the urgency of reducing carbon emissions blamed for global warming.
The Rust Belt coal-state Democrats who have been sitting on the fence worry about how to explain their vote for higher energy prices to people back home — and how the vote might play out in elections next year.
Republicans have been quick to exploit those concerns.
“Democratic leaders are poised to march many moderate Democrats over a cliff … by forcing them to vote for a national energy tax that is unpopular throughout the heartland,” Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said.
There was widespread agreement that under this cap-and-trade system, the cost of energy would almost certainly increase. But Democrats argued that much of the impact on taxpayers would be offset by other provisions in the bill. Low-income consumers would qualify for credits and rebates to cushion the impact on their energy bills.
Two reports issued this week — one from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and the other from the Environmental Protection Agency — seemed to support that argument.
The CBO analysis estimated that the bill would cost an average household $175 a year; the EPA put it at between $80 and $110 a year.
Republicans questioned the validity of the CBO study and noted that even that analysis showed actual energy production costs increasing $770 per household. Industry groups have cited other studies showing much higher cost to the economy and to individuals.
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WRONG WRONG WRONG
Discussion still going on on the House floor.
Final vote is later today.
Keep the pressure up with your calls and emails.
Approximately 03:09 PM EDT - From: Sean Hannity - 210 to 210
Keep calling,keep e-mailing,keep FIGHTING.This is how we kicked there as on amnesty..
Koh got confirmed yesterday while everyone was crying about MJ. 8 Republicans voted “yea”.
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00213
Under the radar, and in the dark of night, is the usual M.O. of the Dems in attempting to pass their Socialist agenda. Koh is a big time Asshole-Lib! Cap and Trade will be the icing on the Commie Cake! Any Republican who votes for Cap and Trade, and “yea” for Koh should be targeted and voted out!
Update from Michelle Malkin’s site:
“4:53pm: GOP Rep. Barton refers to suppressed EPA Carlin report. “The science is not there.”
Barton cites Spain’s green jobs boondoggle. Costs 2.2 regular jobs for every green job. “That’s not a revolution I want to be a part of.”
5:09pm: Ed Markey invokes “moral imperative” — pet phrase of the Left today.
Global warming cult at work.
Waxman responds with emotional global warming babble.
5:17pm: Connie Hair reports from top GOP sources that Dems have pulled Patrick Kennedy out of rehab to vote.
Yes, it’s that close.”
These asses are committing treason, no doubt about
from my ill-informed senator:
Thank you for writing to me regarding your opposition to climate change legislation. I respectfully disagree with your position and view climate change as the most important environmental challenge of our time.
Climate change is a very serious problem - not just for our environment, but for our economy and our national security, as well - and the way we produce and consume energy is making the problem worse. We need to pass legislation to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and transition to a clean energy economy. To do that, we will have to build a broad coalition.
To succeed, a bill will need diverse support, which means bringing everyone to the table and really listening to what they have to say. We have to sit down with the environmental community, the business community, and the scientific community. We have to talk to Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle about how best to address this crucial issue.
This could be a watershed moment. We have near scientific unanimity that humans are causing climate change, we have a Congress poised to take action, and we have a President pushing for progress. In his inaugural address, President Obama told us “each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.” He is absolutely right, and I look forward to working with the President to: (1) promote energy innovation so that we can produce and consume energy more cleanly and efficiently; (2) protect energy consumers from rising power prices; (3) prepare our communities to respond to the impacts of climate change; and (4) create jobs as we transition toward a clean energy economy. I also support including provisions in climate change legislation that would ensure a cap-and-trade system does not increase the deficit.
Climate legislation should improve our environment and grow our economy at the same time. In these tough financial times, some have asked whether it makes sense to focus on the environment. The fact is, ignoring climate change until our economic situation improves will ultimately be far more expensive - and destructive - than taking steps to address it now.
Climate change does not just threaten our environment, it endangers our economy and national security, as well. Left unabated, its impacts will ravage coastlines and coastal communities, destroy large swaths of roadways and railways, and seriously degrade land resources and biodiversity. Additionally, climate-induced droughts will cause famine, threatening already scarce resources and further destabilizing developing nations that are unable to quickly adapt. Every day we fail to reform our energy habits, we guarantee the solution will be far more expensive; and if we wait much longer, there may be no solution.
If we are able to pass climate change legislation this year, we will ensure the integrity of our environmental legacy for generations to come. I am working hard to make certain we move toward that important goal.
As you may know, on April 17, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a preliminary finding that carbon dioxide emissions harm human health and welfare. Though the finding has not yet been finalized, if and when it is, EPA will be able to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. One option the agency will have for doing so will be to set reduction targets. I believe strongly that cap-and-trade would be the better approach. It allows businesses to comply with reduction targets in the most economically efficient way possible, which, in turn, helps keep American-made goods competitive and keeps energy prices down.
Sincerely,
Joseph I. Lieberman
UNITED STATES SENATOR
the EPA is suppressing information and Liberman is a dupe to believe them
It’s worse than that Mark.
The EPA has determined that YOU are a threat to the planet because you exhale CO2.
Write Lieberman back and ask what are his plans for resolving the conundrum of you not being a “clean” burner of a fuel called oxygen.
It’s a conspiracy: Fear mongering and redistribution of wealth
http://www.globalwarminghoax.com/comment.php?comment.news.93
http://kenraggio.com/KRPN-Gorbachev-PresidiumtoPresidio.htm
Excert
“The “Green Movement” ultimately produced what is now known as “Cap and Trade.” Cap and Trade is short-hand for limiting, or capping pollutant emissions or buying, or trading an emissions license from another entity whose pollutions are below the cap. While keeping the air clean is a noble cause, the cap and trade agenda is all about bankrupting the United States of America by forcing it to shut down its polluting business, or paying billion, if not trillions of dollars in trade to non-developed nations for their polluting rights.”
Check out the Polosi/Gorbachev connection and meeting with the TOTUS and Biden. March 20th, 2009
Since our Senators - like Joseph Lieberman - and our Congressmen seem to be incapable of reading any ‘real’ science or talking to any scientists with integrity… maybe they can sit through a, slightly longer then one hour long, documentary film.
This assumes, of course, that any of them are Internet-literate enough to even figure out how to watch a video on a computer.
The link below is to one of my ’stand alone’ web pages. A page I built, on December 25, 2008, to embed a “GarageTV” hosted “flash video” film.
The Great Global Warming Swindle
http://demogorgon.home.att.net/conatus/conatus_004_omega.html
A Martin Durkin documentary film that was first broadcast on Channel 4 (UK) television in March of 2007.
Below is another literally identical and slightly more complete “Google” hosted “flash video” version of this very same documentary film. Posted earlier this year right here at Pat Dollard | Young Americans.
The Great Global Warming Swindle
April 12th, 2009 Posted By ticticboom.
http://patdollard.com/2009/04/the-great-global-warming-swindle/
This is how you should write and/or respond to these fools in Washington!
I hope some of you who regularly ‘visit’ here discover this comment.
– Demogorgon