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Barbara Boxer:; Pass Global Warming Taxes or; IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!
Topic Started: Jul 12 2009, 01:30 AM (219 Views)
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You Can't Make this Stuff up!

By Rob Hotakainen, McClatchy Newspapers Rob Hotakainen, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Sat Jul 11, 6:00 am ET

WASHINGTON — If the Senate doesn't pass a bill to cut global warming, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer says, there will be dire results: droughts, floods, fires, loss of species, damage to agriculture, worsening air pollution and more.

She says there's a huge upside, however, if the Senate does act: millions of clean-energy jobs, reduced reliance on foreign oil and less pollution for the nation's children.

Boxer is engaged in her biggest sales job ever. The stakes couldn't be higher as she faces one of the toughest high-profile acts of her lengthy career: getting Congress to sign off on historic legislation to lower greenhouse-gas emissions.

"For Barbara Boxer , it's both the opportunity and a challenge of a lifetime," said Frank O'Donnell , the president of Clean Air Watch .

As the Senate's top-ranked environmentalist, Boxer heads the influential committee that began hearings on the issue this week. She's aiming to get her panel to pass a bill by the end of September. For months now, she's been meeting with senators one on one and hosting a group of about 30 senators for "Tuesday at 12" meetings to develop a strategy to win 60 votes, enough to overcome a Republican filibuster.

With a House of Representatives bill already approved, all eyes are on Boxer, who must overcome plenty of skepticism on Capitol Hill among her fellow Democrats.

"It's going to be a tough slog, but I'm excited about it. . . . I know that my Republican colleagues are going to try to do everything to stop it and distort it," Boxer said Friday in an interview.

Last year, Boxer's standalone climate-change bill fell to defeat, but there's a new strategy this year that will make it harder for senators to reject it. Six committees — Environment and Public Works, which Boxer heads, Finance, Commerce, Energy , Agriculture and Foreign Relations — will have jurisdiction over the bill. Those committee heads have been meeting for months with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada , who'll help combine their work into one massive bill this fall.

Boxer said the approach was unlike any she'd experienced since she joined the Senate in 1993, and she predicted that it will simplify passage.

"It's a different dynamic, and it will make it easier," she said in the interview. "There will be so much in this bill. There will be investments in transportation. There will be great opportunities for agriculture. There will be great incentives for energy efficiency. There will be so much in there. There will be help for areas that need flood control. It should have a broader appeal. Having said that, it's all difficult."

While vote counts vary, most observers say that the bill's fate will lie with 15 or so Democratic moderates, many of whom fear that a vote for climate-change legislation could hurt their re-election chances. Boxer is trying to round up some Republican votes to offset opposition from the likes of Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska .

Boxer has been telling audiences for years that Congress must act, and that it will. After years of battling with the Bush administration, Boxer figures she has the best odds ever of getting a bill signed into law.

It still won't be easy, however.

Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma , the top-ranked Republican on the environment committee, predicts that Boxer will fail. He said the public would see the legislation as a large tax increase once people understood that they'd ultimately bear the costs of any bill that forced companies to reduce global-warming emissions.

"Once the American public realizes what this legislation will do to their wallets, they will resoundly reject it," Inhofe said Tuesday at a hearing.

Boxer said the legislation wouldn't include any new taxes, and she's portraying Republican opponents as obstructionists.

"This is consistent with a pattern of 'No. No, we can't. No, we won't,' " Boxer said. "I believe that this committee, when the votes are eventually taken on our bill, will reflect our president's attitude, which is 'Yes, we can, and yes, we will.' "

Aides say that Boxer, who's spent her political career focused on environmental issues, is keenly aware that this is her big moment, a chance to cement a legacy that would include passage of legislation with a worldwide impact. Three more committee hearings are set for next week, and a vote by the full Senate could come as early as October.

Boxer has been working closely with top White House aides and Reid, a close ally, to figure out a way to pass the bill. To reach out to farm-state and coal-state senators, she's enlisted a team of lieutenants: Democratic Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts , Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota , Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Thomas Carper of Delaware , among others.

While Boxer has yet to introduce specifics of her bill, it's expected to build on a House plan that was approved 219-212 last month, which would set the first enforceable limits on global warming pollution. The cap on emissions would reduce them by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83 percent below 2005 levels by 2050. Among other things, it also would require that the nation get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable energy in 2020 and set energy-saving standards for buildings, appliances and industries.

The Obama administration is expected to lobby hard on Boxer's behalf, as was evidenced by this week's hearings. The administration sent four of its top-level appointees to make the case for the bill: Energy Secretary Steven Chu , Interior Secretary Ken Salazar , Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Lisa Jackson , the head of the Environmental Protection Agency .

Boxer has plenty of support from most environmental groups, but she's bound to feel the heat as she begins compromising to win votes. Greenpeace , for example, and others opposed the House bill, saying that it had been weakened too much to appease farm-state interests.

O'Donnell said that Boxer would face those same pressures.

"That is going to be one of the real challenges for Boxer," he said. "How do you ensure the integrity of the program while bringing along farm-state senators to your side?"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090711/sc_mcclatchy/3269899

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The Liberal Religion.
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Baldo
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As nutty a Senator you could ever find. This woman is in charge of the cap and trade bill in the Senate. Her original intention was to pass a bill that would have set up a Green Board to review our business and personal lives for "Greenness."

Manufacturing, Agriculture, and every part of life would come under scrutiny. Products would be graded on Greenness and be awarded or penalized "Green Credits."

Currently I don't know what is in her bill and what will come out of a House-Senate Reconciliation committee. The reality is we still don't know fully what was passed in the House as we saw the open ended clause. Of course Congress never read the bill either.

The Californian politicians behind this bill as are detached from reality as you can find. They represent areas like West Hollywood, Santa Monica, SF, and Marin. To me the biggest problem is that their views come from areas who have little industrial, manufacturing, or agriculture base.

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longstop
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It's really all about CONTROL ! :bump:


http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_debra_j_saunders/it_s_getting_cold_out_there


No wonder skeptics consider the left's belief in man-made global warming as akin to a fad religion -- last week in Italy, G8 leaders pledged to not allow the Earth's temperature to rise more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

For its next act, the G8 can part the Red Sea. The worst part is: These are the brainy swells who think of themselves as -- all bow -- Men of Science.

The funny part is: G8 leaders can't even decide the year from which emissions must be reduced. 1990? 2005? "This question is a mystery for everyone," an aide to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said.

snip


The global-warming community's reaction to real-world data -- and the lack of warming in this century -- has been to remain true believers. Except now they call it "climate change."

END
Edited by longstop, Jul 12 2009, 01:20 PM.
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diet_dr_pepper
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I'm sorry, but the sky is not falling and global warming is a bunch of hooey. End of story.

PS Sometimes I wish the sky would fall on Gore and all the US senators and US representives who believe in this global warming garbage. :har:
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“Damned Global Warming Skeptics”

Full article: http://www.qando.net/?p=3517

Why don’t they just shut up!

The science is settled! We have consensus.

Well, except for those 32,000 American scientists who have signed a petition saying they don’t agree that anthropogenic, or man-made, global warming is threatening society as we know it.

And now we have another one – another skeptical scientist who attempts to enlighten the cult of AGW as to how the science actually works. I’ll let him lay it out:


Snip
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chatham
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She is poised to make a lot of money when this bill is passed
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LTC8K6
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Assistant to The Devil Himself
Claiming that the sky is falling is rarely a winning strategy...
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