Senate Panel Approves Climate Change Bill Despite GOP Boycott

November 5, 2009 1:46 p.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee reported out a climate change bill on Thursday despite a boycott by Republican members, who had required a complete analysis of the measure before participating in the committee debate.

The bill crafted by Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) passed by a vote of 11-1, with none of the seven Republicans in the committee voting.

The sole lawmaker who cast a "nay" was Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), a moderate Democrat who wants a lower carbon reduction target that can gain enough votes on the full Senate floor.

The Kerry-Boxer bill 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 top Republican in the committee, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), had repeatedly made clear that action on the measure should only be continued after minority members had received a full economic analysis from the Environmental Protection Agency. He expressed "deep disappointment" with the panel's passage of the bill, accusing Boxer of "violat[ing] the rules and longstanding precedent of the committee."

"The Republicans offered a clear path forward to a bipartisan markup, but it was summarily rejected by Chairman Boxer," Inhofe, who believes global warming is a hoax and who was chairman of the Environment panel under the Bush administration, said in a statement.

"[Boxer] decided to ignore the entreaties of all 6 ranking members from Senate committees with some share of jurisdiction over climate change legislation, as well as leading moderates in the Senate. Her action signals the death knell for the Kerry Boxer bill," he added.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who unlike Inhofe believes in global warming, also said, "Republicans want and expect to participate in any bill about clean energy but.. the American people need to know what this legislation will cost them in utility bills, jobs, their taxpayer dollars, gas prices and how much it will actually help the environment."

Boxer said the vote was "in full accordance with longstanding Committee and Senate Rules."

An EPA analysis, she explained, would be "duplicative and a waste of taxpayer dollars because the environment agency had said "their economic analysis was 'unprecedented' in scope and was never done for any other energy or climate bill at this stage of the process. "

"The absence of the Republicans during the EPA's presentation was a clear message that their criticism of the EPA analysis was not a substantive one," Boxer added, referring to the EPA briefing boycotted by minority members on Tuesday.

The agency has issued a 38-page discussion paper on the bill and an analysis of a similar measure in the House, dubbed the Waxman-Markey climate change bill. But Republicans had sought a complete study with modeling runs.

"I want to be very clear about what the Republicans want: we want a markup of this bill," Inhofe had said in an emphatic statement during Wednesday's committee hearing. "Madam Chairman, choosing the other course would be unwise... You and I have a lot of work to do: the highway bill and many others. We can't render the Committee irrelevant."

The Kerry-Boxer bill has the support of Exelon Corporation, the nation's largest electric and gas utility, but is opposed by Republicans and the American Farm Bureau Federation, both of which warn that a cap-and-trade program would raise energy costs.

Exelon Chairman and CEO John Rowe testified before the committee last week, "Without prompt action, the utility industry will be caught in a carbon purgatory: we will lack the certainty we need to make the large-scale investments in clean generation that are necessary to both keep the lights on and meet the challenges associated with climate change."

"We firmly believe that cap-and-trade legislation can accomplish our national environmental objectives while ensuring robust economic growth," Rowe added. "To moderate price increases to consumers, Exelon supports the free allocation of 40 percent of emissions allowances to local delivery companies, which will sell the allowances and use the proceeds to mitigate costs for customers. To be abundantly clear, neither Exelon nor its shareholders will profit from the allowances to local delivery companies."

The same day, however, American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman told the committee, "Families will be hit hard with higher energy costs under any cap-and-trade program, an amount that could total up to $200 billion a year for American taxpayers. That will put enormous strain on family budgets."

"Agriculture and forestry can play a key role in any future national energy policy," added Stallman. "But [the bill] fails to recognize this role and would in fact penalize the very sectors that have the best opportunity to reduce greenhouse emissions in the most cost-effective manner for all."

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

The Waxman-Markey bill, on the other hand, 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 supports the Waxman-Markey bill, but only after the Agriculture Department, and not the EPA, was made overseer of an offset program providing credits to farmers who use environmentally-sound practices. The bill already has the backing of BP America, Caterpillar, Conoco, Johnson & Johnson, Shell, Siemens, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club.

Senate Republicans have been pushing an alternative proposal that aims to build 100 nuclear power plants 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.