Thread: U.N. Chief Urges Senate to Take on Climate Change

AP

- November 11, 2009

U.N. Chief Urges Senate to Take On Climate Change

Ban Ki-moon told senators it was critical for the U.S. to take the lead in slowing global warming.

WASHINGTON - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pressed the Senate Tuesday to take action on climate change, but key senators made it clear that a bill is unlikely to pass this year.

The U.N. chief met with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee late Tuesday afternoon to discuss the status of negotiations on a new international pact to slow global warming before 192 nations meet in Copenhagen next month. The meeting came a day after President Barack Obama said he was willing to go to Copenhagen if his presence would help clinch a deal.

Ban told the senators it was critical for the U.S. to take the lead, but he also said he understood that the Senate may not be in a position to take concrete action before the talks.

"From what I heard today, there is great support in the Senate for action on climate change," Ban said. "I would sincerely hope that the Senate would take necessary action as soon as possible."

But just how soon the U.S. Senate will act on climate change is uncertain. Leading senators made it clear Tuesday that a bill was unlikely to reach the Senate floor by the end of the year. The House narrowly passed its version of a global warming bill in June.

At the same time, Ban and Janos Pasztor, the director of his Climate Change Support Team, have scaled back their expectations for a new international treaty in Copenhagen. In the past month, they have focused instead on getting a political deal on the basic elements that can be turned into a treaty, hopefully next year.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., the author of the Senate bill that would set the first-ever U.S. limits on greenhouse gases, said Tuesday that he hoped to have an outline of where the Senate was headed by the time of the Copenhagen meeting. Kerry, along with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., are working to piece together a bill that can get the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate.

Kerry's bill last week was voted out of a Senate panel, sidestepping a Republican boycott. But five other committees will also have a say in the legislation.

On Tuesday, Kerry said that the bill would come to the floor "as soon as practical" and he was confident that when it did, the U.S. Senate would do its part.

Lieberman said he expects debate before the full Senate to begin early next year.

"But we will go to Copenhagen with a House-passed climate change bill, some momentum in the Senate ... and the Obama administration clearly supportive of climate change legislation," Lieberman said.

Ban acknowledged that some senators had lingering concerns about the costs associated with limiting the gases blamed for global warming and whether other countries will do their share to control emissions.

He responded to those criticisms by saying that the cost of inaction was far greater, and that other countries are already moving down a pathway to cleaner sources of energy.

"I also told the Senate that the world is not standing still," Ban said.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11 ... te-change/

Three Senators Out To Rescue Climate Bill

Thursday, November 5, 2009 8:09 AM

A trio of senators with different political views launched a rescue effort Wednesday for troubled climate legislation.

Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat -- together with Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, Connecticut independent -- announced that they would work in conjunction with the White House to patch together a bill that could pass the U.S. Senate.

The three senators met individually Wednesday with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Carol Browner, the president's assistant for energy and climate change.

"Our effort is to try to reach out to broaden the base of support," Mr. Kerry said at an afternoon news conference. "The key here is to really negotiate once, in a sense."

Mr. Graham, who has come under fire in his home state for his support of action on climate change, said working on legislation was a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to solve two problems: heat-trapping carbon dioxide pollution and the country's dependence on foreign sources of fuel.


"If environmental policy is not good business policy, you will not get 60 votes," Mr. Graham warned. "The green economy is coming. We can either follow or lead."

The announcement came as a key Senate panel for a second straight day delayed voting on any changes to a climate and energy bill introduced in late September by Mr. Kerry and Sen. Barbara Boxer, California Democrat, because no Republicans showed up.

Republican lawmakers are demanding a more thorough economic analysis of the measure, which would reduce heat-trapping gases by 83 percent by 2050, saying it will raise energy prices and cause job losses.

But the bill, which would set up a market for pollution permits, also has raised concerns among moderate Democrats, including Sen. Max Baucus, Montana Democrat.

Mr. Kerry, Mr. Graham and Mr. Lieberman stressed Wednesday that their "dual track" for climate legislation would not usurp Mrs. Boxer's efforts or the work of five other committees that have jurisdiction over energy and climate policy. They also said they had the blessing of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat.

Instead, they said they would take the best pieces of the Kerry-Boxer bill and try to broaden support by adding more incentives for nuclear power and offshore drilling that could bring some Republicans and moderate Democrats on board.

Tony Kreindler, a spokesman for the Environmental Defense Fund, said the three senators "have given a new life to a bipartisan process."


Left unanswered was how long the new process would take. Mr. Kerry said he would not be bound by a specific time frame. But with a month left until 192 nations gather in Copenhagen to hammer out a new international treaty to slow global warming, the Obama administration and Democrats are under pressure to show movement on a climate bill.


The House passed its version of the bill in June.


"This is the year that we've got to reach out to each other and get the 60 votes to get something done," Mr. Lieberman said. He co-authored a global-warming bill last year along with former Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Democrat, and Mrs. Boxer. The measure failed to get enough votes to advance on the Senate floor.

Source: The Washington Times

http://www.newsmax.com/politics/kerry_g ... 82021.html

Ban Ki-moon told senators it was critical for the U.S. to take the lead in slowing global warming.

In other words the rest of the world has their hands out waiting for the money they are going to steal from the American people as they "spread our wealth" into their pocketts via the Cap and Trade tax.

If global warming is so horrible why aren't India and China going to participate? Answer: Because they know that Global Warming is a Gore creation designed to make him and his Global friends very rich while selling America to the UN.

Would it be to much to ask for a constitutional dollar?