Republicans To Boycott Committee Debate Of Boxer-Kerry Climate Bill

November 2, 2009 2:34 p.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The GOP plans to boycott the first day of panel debate on a climate change bill crafted by Senate Environment Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). Boxer has urged Republicans, who say the legislation would harm families and small businesses with a new energy tax, to return to work, but also said that her panel will proceed even without their cooperation.

The Environment Committee is scheduled to begin markup of the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act on Tuesday. The top minority member of the committee, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), had repeatedly made clear that markup should only be held after Republicans had received a chairman's mark, a score of the legislation from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, and a complete economic analysis from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Boxer released a chairman's mark two weeks ago, but has yet to provide a full EPA analysis or estimate of costs from the CBO. Last week, her committee held hearings on the bill over the course of three days, with 54 witnesses testifying, including Vice Admiral Dennis McGinn of the Military Advisory Board, Peter Brehm, vice president of Infinia Corporation's business development and government relations, and Barry Hart, chief executive of the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives.

The bill, proposed by Boxer and Kerry aims for a 20 percent reduction of carbon pollution by 2020 from 2005 levels, and 80 percent by 2050. The reductions will be done through a cap-and-trade system that will allow companies to buy and sell vouchers according to whether they want to pay for the right to keep polluting or gain the incentive for reducing emissions.

The system exempts all farmers and 98 percent of businesses, covering only the largest emitters in the nation --- initially about 7,500 facilities that account for three?quarters of nationwide carbon pollution.

In contrast, the climate bill passed by the House, dubbed the Waxman-Markey bill, requires most companies to buy carbon permits from the federal government. It seeks to reduce emissions by 17 percent in 2020, by 42 percent in 2030, and by 83 percent in 2050.The measure was passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in May by a vote of 33-25. The full House approved the measure a month later by a narrow 219-212 vote.

The National Farmers Union had voiced support for the Waxman-Markey bill -- which has the backing of BP America, Caterpillar, Conoco, Johnson & Johnson, Shell, Siemens, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club --[ after the Agriculture Department, and not the EPA, was made overseer in the measure's offset program providing credits to farmers who use environmentally sound practices.

But the group said in testimony before Environment Committee last week that the Senate bill "lacks the robust and flexible agriculture offset program necessary for America's farmers and ranchers to be able to mitigate increased costs that will occur as a result of a cap and trade program."

The American Farm Bureau Federation opposes both legislation.

"The principal bills in the House and Senate would.... cap emissions of greenhouse gases by limiting the use of fossil fuels. However, there is little in either bill that would provide an alternative source of energy to the fossil fuels that will be lost," AFBF President Bob Stallman told the panel.

Senate Republicans are pushing an alternative proposal that aims to build 100 nuclear powerplants over two decades, electrifies half of all vehicles over the same period, and uses oil found off-shore for the remaining energy needs of the nation. Boxer has included provisions on nuclear energy in her bill, but the GOP has said a cap-and-trade measure with or without nuclear power is still an energy tax.

"I have no problem acknowledging the problem, but I do have a problem with the proposed solution," Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), a senior member of the committee, said in a floor speech last week. "The National Academies of Science of 11 major industrialized countries, including the United States, have said that climate change is real and that humans are causing most of the recent warming."

"If fire chiefs with the same reputation said my house was likely to burn down," Alexander continued, "I would buy some fire insurance. I would buy fire insurance that worked. But I wouldn't buy insurance so expensive that I couldn't pay my mortgage or I couldn't pay my hospital bill."

Inhofe, who believes global warming is a hoax and who was chairman of the Environment panel under the Bush administration, announced the boycott of the markup early on Monday. Boxer had responded with a statement, urgin him "with the utmost respect, to bring the committee Republicans back to work."

"We will give them the opportunity, as we proceed this week, to reconsider their decision," Boxer added. "We look forward to working with them if they decide to participate, but if they do not, we will move forward in accordance with the rules of the Senate and of this Committee."