US climate control bill said to be not passable

08 November 2007 20:28  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--Major climate control legislation that would impose energy limits on US industry and consumers will not win approval in the US Senate, a key Republican staff member said on Thursday.

 

Andrew Wheeler, minority staff director and chief counsel at the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, said the controversial cap and trade bill now being considered by the committee will not get enough support in the Senate to get passed.

 

The committee heard testimony on Thursday about the potential economic and employment impacts of S-2191, the “America’s Climate Security Act of 2007”. The bill is a “cap and trade” system that would impose limits or caps on US industrial emissions of six greenhouse gases (GHG) and provide or auction emissions permits to individual companies. 

 

It targets companies in electric power generation, transportation, chemical and other manufacturing and consumers of natural gas.

 

Those companies whose plants emit less greenhouse gas than permitted could sell remaining emission credits to other firms whose facilities exceed allotted maximums.

 

Sponsored by senators Joseph Lieberman (Independent-Connecticut) and John Warner (Republican-Virginia), the measure is meant to reduce US emissions enough by 2030 "to avert the catastrophic impacts of global climate change," according to its authors.

 

However, economists testifying on Thursday and in separate House hearings earlier warned that the measure would cause severe damage to the US economy and trigger widespread job losses.

 

Wheeler said that because of the dire economic impact likely to result, support for the climate bill in the full Senate will be weak at best.

 

“We do not think there are 60 votes on the Senate floor for this legislation in this Congress,” Wheeler said. Under a US Senate parliamentary procedure known as a filibuster, Senate opponents of a bill can debate the measure indefinitely unless 60 senators vote to end discussion and bring the matter to a vote.

 

Wheeler said that Senator Barbara Boxer (Democrat-California), chairwoman of the committee, probably has enough Democrat majority votes to move the bill to the full Senate but that there it will die.

By: Joe Kamalick
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