The Senate's version of the climate change bill is kicking around in the Environment and Public Works Committee right now, and Committee chair (and Democrat) Barbara Boxer wants to get the bill voted on and approved in the Committee as soon as possible, mainly to show domestic progress on the issue to give a boost to the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change in December.
Now, even if the seven Republicans on the Committee vote "no," or refuse to vote, the bill can still pass. However, if the Republicans on the Committee simply boycott work sessions prior to any voting, Senator Boxer wouldn't be able to hold said sessions, and thus a vote couldn't even happen. And, as Reuters reports, that's exactly what the Republicans are thinking about doing.
A "boycott is on the table as an option," said Matt Dempsey, a spokesman for Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. "We're certainly heading in that direction."
The boycott would delay the climate change bill's vote in the Senate proper, which could mean the United States would go to Copenhagen without a framework in place. Which, in turn, would tie our negotiators' hands, because they will be forbidden to sign any treaty that has standards that are stricter than our national ones. So what's so important that this legislation needs to be delayed by semi-extreme measures?During this week's hearings, Republicans have been pressing for more detailed analysis of the complex legislation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA head Lisa Jackson testified that it could take "four to five weeks to run the full economic modeling" on the bill. Republicans argue they need the detailed information to gauge the economic impact, even though a preliminary analysis by EPA found that it was similar to a House-passed bill, which the agency said would cost consumers about $80 to $111 per year.
Yup, money. Some Republicans are worried that the bill will impact some parts of the country worse than others, financially speaking, and that jobs will be lost, and consumer prices will rise. Apparently they haven't heard about the green jobs that will be created, and that not fighting climate change is pretty expensive. Sigh.Topics
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