Is the climate change bill heading the way of the health care legislation that is dominating the debate in Congressional town hall meetings during this summer recess? Is the climate change bill mired in controversial issues that make the legislation unlikely to garner the 60 votes needed for it to move in the Senate?That appears to be the opinion of more and more Democratic lawmakers in the United States Senate. In early August ten democratic senators representing industrial states wrote a letter to the Obama Administration essentially telling the administration that they would be unable to support any climate change legislation that did not have strong protections for American businesses from companies located in countries that do not have similar greenhouse gas emission standards. Now, Senators representing agricultural states are letting their concerns be heard as well.
Senators Blanche Lincoln (AR), Ben Nelson (NE), Byron Dorgan (ND), and Kent Conrad (NE) believe the climate change legislation that focuses on reducing carbon emissions will not be able to get the 60 votes needed to achieve cloture and receive an up or down vote. Instead, according to an article by Sustainablebusiness.com, and published on the Reuters website, the senators suggest the Senate focus on a smaller renewable energy bill.
According to the article, Senator Lincoln stated, ‘"The problem of doing both of them together is that it becomes too big of a lift . . . I see the cap-and-trade being a real problem."’ The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee already passed legislation out of the committee that would expand the use of renewable energy. However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid thinks renewable energy legislation and climate change legislation similar to the House-passed Waxman-Markey bill should be joined in the same legislative package. ‘"I don't think we are going to take to the Senate floor a bill stripped of climate provisions,’ Reid told reporters in Las Vegas on Aug. 11.”
Yet, the climate, so to speak, in the Senate may be heading towards the position of the four concerned senators. In the meantime, the United States is set to take part in global climate change discussion in Copenhagen in December. An editorial in the New York Times argues that failure to act on climate change through domestic legislation will weaken the United States' leadership position during the Copenhagen meeting.
Much like healthcare, it appears climate change legislation is destined to stay in the news for some time to come.
To learn more about climate change law please see the National Agriculture Law Center’s Climate Change Reading Room by click here.
To see previous United States Agriculture and Food Law and Policy Blog posts click here.
To see the Sustainablebusiness.com article on the Reuters website click here.
Posted: 08/18/09
