Despite an upcoming global summit in December to address climate change, where the United States had hoped to take a leadership role, the United States Senate will not take up climate change legislation until “later in September” when the Senate Democrats will “unveil their legislation.”As this blog has previously reported, not only does climate change legislation face opposition from the Republican Party in Congress, but several democratic senators representing farm states and the “rust belt” have publicly aired their concerns over any potential bill. Additionally, the American Petroleum Institute, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and the National Association of Manufacturers, along with other industry stakeholders, have taken a page out of the health care industry’s playbook and helped organize and fund rallies by the Energy Citizens group to express public opposition to the legislation at town hall events and other public settings during the August recess.
Given the amount of opposition the bill is facing, along with the continuing health care debate, one can understand why Senate leadership wants to delay the bill. As Richard Cowan reports for Reuters, originally the Senate had planned to introduce a Senate companion to the House-passed bill to reduce carbon emissions and greenhouse gases by late July. Still, Cowan reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid ‘"fully expects the Senate to have ample time to consider this comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation before the end of the year,’” according to the Senator’s spokesman Jim Manley.
Currently, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer is working towards putting a bill together. Boxer is apparently working with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry on crafting the legislation. In June the House of Representatives passed a climate change bill that aims to reduce U.S. carbon emissions “by 17 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels.” According to Cowan, Senator Boxer wants to make ‘“tweaks”’ to the House bill.
In December the United Nations will hold a summit in Copenhagen to develop a strategy for dealing with greenhouse gas emissions. As Cowan reports, the administration hoped to have a bill passed by then to show both the U.S. commitment to combating global climate change and to give the U.S. a better position at the table during the discussions. There is still time to meet this goal, but the Senate, a notoriously deliberative legislative body, will have its work cut out for it if both climate change and health care legislation are to pass by the end of the year.
To read the Cowan story for Reuters click here.
To read previous U.S. Agricultural and Food Law and Policy Blog posts on the legislation and climate change issues in general, click here.
To visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s Climate Change Reading Room click here.
Posted: 09/01/09
