From the U.S. Senate Committe on Environment and Public Works
Democrats Delay Global Warming Bill – Again
Obama Agenda In “Disarray”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Environment & Public Works Committee, today said that he was not surprised to learn that Senate Democrats were forced once again to delay introduction of their global warming cap-and-trade bill. Throughout hearing after hearing in the EPW Committee this summer, it became apparent that Democrats were a long way off from reaching the votes necessary in the Senate to pass the largest tax increase in American history.
“The news today-that Sen. Boxer and Sen. Kerry will delay introduction of their cap-and-trade bill-came as no surprise. The delay is emblematic of the division and disarray in the Democratic Party over cap-and-trade and health care legislation-both of which are big government schemes for which the public has expressed overwhelming opposition. With the climate change debate on Capitol Hill, it’s safe to report that bipartisanship is nowhere in evidence. Cap-and-trade has pitted Democrat against Democrat, or, put another way, it centers on those in the party supporting the largest tax increase in American history against those in the party who oppose it. As to just who will win this intra-party squabble, I put money down on those representing the vast majority of the American people, who are clear that cap-and-trade should be rationed out of existence.”
In the last hearing before the EPW Committee before the August recess, Senator Inhofe spoke directly to the mounting concerns raised by Senate Democrats to cap-and-trade legislation:
Full opening statement provided below:
Climate Change and Ensuring that America Leads the Clean Energy Transformation
August 6, 2009
Madame Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing today. This is the last hearing on climate change before the August recess, so I think it’s appropriate to take stock of what we’ve learned.
Madame Chairman, since you assumed the gavel, this committee has held over thirty hearings on climate change. With testimony from numerous experts and officials from all over the country, these hearings explored various issues associated with cap-and-trade-and I’m sure my colleagues learned a great deal from them.
But over the last two years, it was not from these, at times, arcane and abstract policy discussions that we got to the essence of cap-and-trade. No, it was the Democrats who cut right to the chase; it was the Democrats over the last two years who exposed what cap-and-trade really means for the American public.
We learned, for example, from President Obama that under his cap-and-trade plan, “electricity prices would necessarily skyrocket.”
We learned from Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) that cap-and-trade is “a tax, and a great big one.”
We learned from Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) that “a cap-and-trade system is prone to market manipulation and speculation without any guarantee of meaningful GHG emission reductions. A cap-and-trade has been operating in Europe for three years and is largely a failure.”
We learned from Sen. Dorgan (D-N.D.) that with cap-and-trade “the Wall Street crowd can’t wait to sink their teeth into a new trillion-dollar trading market in which hedge funds and investment banks would trade and speculate on carbon credits and securities. In no time they’ll create derivatives, swaps and more in that new market. In fact, most of the investment banks have already created carbon trading departments. They are ready to go. I’m not.”
We learned from Sen. Cantwell (D-Wash.) that “a cap-and-trade program might allow Wall Street to distort a carbon market for its own profits.”
We learned from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson that unilateral U.S. action to address climate change through cap-and-trade would be futile. She said in response to a question from me that “U.S. action alone will not impact world CO2 levels.”
We learned from Sen. Kerry (D-Mass.) that “there is no way the United States of America acting alone can solve this problem. So we have to have China; we have to have India.”
We learned from Sen. McCaskill (D-Mo.) that if “we go too far with this,” that is, cap-and-trade, then “all we’re going to do is chase more jobs to China and India, where they’ve been putting up coal-fired plants every 10 minutes.”
In sum, after a slew of hearings and three unsuccessful votes on the Senate floor, the Democrats taught us that cap-and-trade is a great big tax that will raise electricity prices on consumers, enrich Wall Street traders, and send jobs to China and India-all without any impact on global temperature.
So off we go into the August recess, secure in the knowledge that cap-and-trade is riddled with flaws, and that Democrats are seriously divided over one of President Obama’s top domestic policy priorities.
And we also know that, according to recent polling, the American public is increasingly unwilling to pay anything to fight global warming.
But all of this does not mean cap-and-trade is dead and gone. It is very much alive, as Democratic leaders, as they did in the House, are eager to distribute pork on unprecedented scales to secure the necessary votes to pass cap-and-trade into law.
So be assured of this: We will markup legislation in this committee, pass it, and then it will be combined with other bills from other committees. And we will have a debate on the Senate floor.
Throughout the debate on cap-and-trade, we will be there to say that:
According to the American Farm Bureau, the vast majority of agriculture groups oppose it;
According to GAO, it will send our jobs to China and India;
According to the National Black Chamber of Commerce, it will destroy over 2 million jobs;
According to EPA and EIA, it will not reduce our dependence on foreign oil;
According to EPA, it will do nothing to reduce global temperature;
And when all is said and done, the American people will reject it and we will defeat it.
Thank you, Madame Chairman.
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This man tells the truth!
It’s interesting that they try to kill cap and trade without questioning the global warming theory. It seems to be politically incorrect in the U.S. too, to question the the theory behind it. Interesting.
I want Ronald Reagan back!
Bring back conservatism!
Reducing CO2 emissions from fossil fuel consumption is easy. You merely increase the taxes on fossil fuels and decrease other taxes by the same amount (in revenue terms). People would then change their behaviour – travel less, buy more local goods, etc.
Cap and Trade is being implemented across the developed world because the United Nations has designated it as the way to reduce CO2 emissions.
The Left loves the UN. Thinking it can solve all the world’s problem, unlike venal and corrupt national politicians. Whereas in reality the UN is perhaps the most corrupt and incompetant organization on the planet. The UN wants Cap and Trade because of its potential for skimming money and scams. Dressed up as helping some poor group of course.
Inhofe’s right hand man has been Mark Murano in this fight. Inhofe has been unflinching for a decade or more in this arena. It appears his persistence is now paying off.
Typical politicians.
If I had to lay a wager on it, I’d say the ‘internal polling numbers’ [the one we proles never see] over this issue [one of many] stink on ice.
Could it be that the common ‘whispered’ question amongst the dems is: ‘how do we survive this mess we’ve created’?
The chill wind they feel on the backs of their necks is the 2010 election.
For them, it’s too close for comfort; for the ‘discontented’, it can’t come too soon.
At least in the past Sen. Inhofe has done a tremendous amount to question/present the science and collect relevant research and information along those lines. I’d be curious how much of the huge amount of that information was presented in the 30 hearings that he notes, however – along with how many and which senators even bothered to show up at those hearings or how many were speeches to empty rooms. I’m assuming that he took the tact he did in this speech based on a combination of what presentation was likely to yield the biggest impact combined with tightly limited time constraints based on floor rules, or something along those lines. I also suspect that he’s likely to give pause to any moderate democrats by appealing to issues that they feel directly impact their chances of re-election…. in other words, the public is more likely to be moved by appeals to issues such as their pocket books, the fact that full implementation of cap and tax won’t make a bit of difference to CO2 levels and global temperatures making it nothing but a massive power and money grab, but it will kill lots of jobs, and so on. Far easier to get memorable soundbites or at least generate some attention to what is being said than by getting into the the ‘boring and confusing’ science details.
You can find reams of information on the committee page. Inhofe’s information of course is all in the “minority” links and pages since he’s the minority leader. Some examples below.
By the way, if you haven’t already heard it, Glenn Beck did a really great “Ronald Reagan Remix” of Reagan speaking about the slippery slope of any move towards socialized medicine. He presented it last week. You can find it online at youtube I’m pretty certain. I downloaded a copy of it to keep and send to friends.
Carlin Investigation Continues: Inhofe, Barrasso Send Letter to EPA On Possible Manipulation of Endangerment Finding Aug 4, 2009 http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=E7A1A451-802A-23AD-4350-FDB4A497DB37
Update: 59 Additional Scientists Join Senate Report…More Than 700 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims March 2009 http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=10FE77B0-802A-23AD-4DF1-FC38ED4F85E3
SENATOR INHOFE ANNOUNCES PUBLIC RELEASE OF “SKEPTIC’S GUIDE TO DEBUNKING GLOBAL WARMING” Dec 2006 http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.Facts&ContentRecord_id=8f5c9829-c459-4d17-89bb-3e3b04d8d444&Region_id=&Issue_id=
You can also search on the committee page for wehatever keywords you like such as “climate change,” and then see the right hand column for “minority page.” For this particular example you’ll get 514 associated minority page links… and you can search for other key terms along the same lines, such as global warming, etc… http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm
“….the American people will reject it and we will defeat it.
Thank you, Madame Chairman.”
Hear, hear. Well said sir.
While Republicans in the US remain steadfast in their opposition to taxing the very air we breathe, here in Australia, our so-called “conservative” party simply looked at the polls and surrendered to our Labor government plans to sacrifice our children’s economic future on the altar of AGW fearmongering.
Obviously, no serious observers believe that imposing new crushing taxes on 21 million Australians will have any measurable effect on the Earth’s climate, yet as a ploy to expand the public sector at the expense of the private, our ETS scheme works admirably.
James Inhofe is to one side –
What James Hansen is to the other.
Just sayin’.
Johnny, –
I would suggest that James Inhofe has been very clear in other forums that the notion that “Man made emissions of CO2 will cause catastrophic Global Warming” is a myth.
He didn’t need to add that to this speech – different weapons for different battles.
It is clear to me that James Inhofe is taking a real stand for the fundmental values and aspirations that underpin US society – vs forces that would willingly, or in ignorance, destroy it.
Here’s what the EU climate bill is doing to the UK:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090901/tuk-in-the-dark-britain-braced-for-power-45dbed5.html
The condemnation of the Tories is a bit rich given that they allowed the Bill to pass through Parliament with barely a raised eyebrow. It certainly didn’t stop Cameron sucking up to Greenpeace recently. I hope felt a right twit when the Top Greenie finally came clean about shrinking ice sheets.
What, no mention of Enron and “energy credits”?
Johnny it is not about global warming theory. I doubt there is a global warming theory but that is a side issue. This is about politics, taxes and religious zeal.
Johnny Honda (23:17:47) :
[…]
I want Ronald Reagan back!
Bring back conservatism!
DHMO (01:33:03) :
[…] I doubt there is a global warming theory but that is a side issue.
I think WUWT readers need broader perspective. Cap’n’Trade is only one small piece of the USA puzzle. I suggest only two issues:
1) Depression Special Report
This SGS Special Report was first published on Aug. 1st to paid SGS Subscribers. It is now open for all to read, and can be found at:
http://www.shadowstats.com/article/depression-special-report?nl
Excerpt: While the current circumstance should become recognized as a “depression,” worse lies ahead as the U.S. government’s long-range insolvency and current efforts at debasing the U.S. dollar trigger a hyperinflation in the next five years. Risks for the onset of a hyperinflation in the United States are particularly high during the next year. As will be discussed in the soon-to-be-updated Hyperinflation Special Report (see the existing April 2008 version for basic background), the United States would be particularly hard hit by such a circumstance. Unlike Zimbabwe, which has been able to maintain some level of functioning commerce during its hyperinflation, due to the backstop of an active black market in U.S. dollars, the United States has no such backstop. Accordingly, a U.S. hyperinflation likely would force cessation of regular commerce, triggering a great depression of a magnitude never before seen in the United States.
And true economic charts:
Shadow Government Statistics
Analysis Behind and Beyond Government Economic Reporting
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data
2) From Russia Today
Two months left to read the book on US collapse
http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2009-08-31/months-left-us-collapse.html
Excerpt: The 2009 US budget deficit is 4.5 times the 2008 deficit, while firearms sales are up 40%. On October 1, the coupons that were given to state workers are to be cashed out. When the workers realize that they are getting nothing for those coupons, they will take out their firearms and chaos will unfold.
BTW A word to moderator. If you play politics, let it be played to the end.
Best regards
James Inhofe deserves a vote of thanks from all Americans and, by extension, people around the world. If this travesty of a bill is rejected it will, in large part, be due to his efforts to bring to light the inconvenient scientific evidence which was being studiously ignored by the press and giving dissenters a platform. Certainly, he played a leading role in scuppering previous attempts to impose such legislation. Lord Monckton is the only other person I can think of who’s played a similarly large role in shaping public perceptions, simply by pointing out the shortcomings of the orthodox view in his own, inimitable way.
Just as a general point, I have read Senator Inhofe’s comments on various issues and he sounds like an eminently practical and sensible person. Very rare in politicians. Its a shame he’s so elderly because he has real leadership potential.
When the smoke has cleared on the cap and trade/global warming debate, history will record Senator Inhofe will stand as one of the heros of the truth.
OT: Climate Audit seems to be down, at least from here in the UK.
It is down in the US, too (at 6:00 a.m. MDT, GMT – 6 hours).
The politicians are beginning to realize that pushing for heavy reform now, as they have been doing, is not what the American people want. They did indeed misinterpret the recent elections. The majority were simply tired of Bush, but they did not want Stalin as a replacement. If either of the health care reform or cap and trade bills is pushed through, these idiots will be voted out. As it stands, they may already be voted out.
Mark
Cap-and-trade is the financial cornerstone of the current administration’s plans to fund its other ambitious programs. Take that away and the illusion of a balanced federal budget in our lifetimes cannot be maintained, leaving the dreams of the political left in tatters. Therefore, this fight is a long way from over.
There is good reason why most on the political left embrace AGW with dogged fealty and no real interest in scientific truth. They like where it takes us. There is equally good reason why many on the political right reject AGW with no more interest in the scientific truth of the matter than those on the left. They don’t like were it takes us. In neither case is reverence for “truth for its own sake” much in evidence.
In the politics of a democratic system, “truth” is whatever the majority says it is. We should all keep that in mind when we begin to delude ourselves that we can scientifically prove ourselves out of a bad patch of political lunacy.
CH
Dictatorships don’t require the consent of the people or that of a puppet congress, to impose their will. Obama hasn’t been appointing Czars such as Holdren, Van Jones, Sunstein, Browner, etc., just for the hell of it.
Ponder this for a second: From Sunstein :”In his book Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech Sunstein says there is a need to reformulate First Amendment law. ” . Van Jones is an avowed Communist by his own admission. And on, and on with many of the others. Holdren advocated (among other things ) forced sterilization to control population.
Just recently a bill has been offered in the Senate (S.733) that will allow Obama to take control of private internet companies – all he needs is an “emergency”.
Here’s a list of of Czars appointed by Obama and other presidents. Look up the history of some of these people in key positions. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/08/31/climate-bill-delayed-and-in-disarray/#more-10440 .
Does anyone seriously think that they (Obama and his cadre ) will allow Inhofe or others to get in the way of the bigger agenda? Inhofe is getting old. He could have a stroke any time.
There is a shock therapy available that will cure any warmists.
Just bring them to this place for a few weeks and they never talk about AGW Climate Change or Cap & Trade for the rest of their lives.
http://www.universetoday.com/2009/08/31/astronomers-find-world%E2%80%99s-best-observing-site/
As a foreigner who pays about US$4.50 per gallon of gasoline, I would suggest you to accept or even promote a gas tax for fixing the deficit of your budget but without any relation or mention whatsoever to that stupidity called “global warming/climate change” related to CO2. So you will backing your country´s economic health and not inflating the next “finance bubble”, the “carbon bubble” which will only benefit a few of swindlers and which will be worst than the sub-prime one because it trades on nothing, it just pours the empty into the void, sucking with that gigantic vacuum all the money left in your impoverished pockets.
wes george (00:36:31) :
I think the explanation for Rudd’s position on this is much simpler. He is a former diplomat. His main motivation for becoming PM was so he could go to all the international meetings as PM. He was desperate to get recognition at the table with the “big boys and girls”. He saw signing onto Kyoto style policies with enthusiasm as a way of quickly ingratiating himself with the likes of Obama and Brown. He is selling Australia down the river to further his own personal ambitions. Turnbull is just as bad. He stands for very few principles apart, I suspect, from a genuine belief that Australia should become a republic.
those pesky sceptic denier scumbags – ruining it all – they’ll pay I tell you!
Here’s another interesting side note, which talks about the income potential of carbon trading to farmers – http://www.dtnprogressivefarmer.com/dtnag/common/link.do?symbolicName=/free/news/template1&paneContentId=5&paneParentId=70104&product=/ag/news/topstories&vendorReference=b88006fa-b53c-4980-88e5-e3a4e3a4d33e
“One of the biggest shifts is that passage of a bill could improve the financial incentives for carbon trading. On the Chicago Climate Exchange, a ton of CO2 has collapsed from a historic rate of $2 to about 25 cents today. Once legislation mandates power companies and other industries to curb emissions, economists expect CO2 to trade for between $15 and $30 per ton, enough to generate sizable revenue streams for innovative producers. “
Claude Harvey (05:07:31) : ….. “In the politics of a democratic system, “truth” is whatever the majority says it is. We should all keep that in mind when we begin to delude ourselves that we can scientifically prove ourselves out of a bad patch of political lunacy.”
———————————————————
Claude, don’t make the mistake of thinking that America is just a Democracy…….. A mere mob rule. A pale, weak thing that European elites mouth to placate their sheeple.
It is better than that sir. It is a Republic.
It is a Republic that has enshrined the right of the individual to profit from their own endeavour. Thus they have written that into their Constitution. They have the freedom to be enterprising. To speak. To bare arms.
The People of America in their times of stress will always look to their founding fathers and the constitution…. and expect their elected officials to uphold it to the letter.
…. It is why it was written so.