US Senate

Climate Security Act gets support from labor unions

The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act has picked up a decent amount of support from labor groups. So far: The Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, which includes: International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship […]

National Association of Manufacturers releases anti-climate legislation video

If you want a sense of the kind of opposition the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act is up against from industry groups, you’ll find a crystalline example in a video just put out by the National Association of Manufacturers. It’s an attempt to stoke fear and anger about the legislation, primarily through the artful deployment of […]

Lieberman-Warner climate bill hitting the Senate floor

After months of hearings, haggling, and revision, a climate change bill will reach the floor of the Senate this week. The showdown over the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (CSA) marks the first time the full chamber has focused on a dedicated piece of global warming legislation since 2005, when the McCain-Lieberman climate bill was voted […]

Club for Growth starts campaign to derail Lieberman-Warner

The Club for Growth — a conservative group “dedicated to helping elect pro-growth, pro-freedom candidates through political contributions and issue advocacy campaigns” — is already waging war on the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, slated to hit the Senate floor June 2. But instead of going after the bill itself, they’re targeting individual senators who seem […]

Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing to stoke fear about the costs of climate legislation

Speaking of cost-containment and the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is holding a hearing tomorrow on “recent reports analyzing the energy and economic impacts of climate change legislation.” Many political observers see this as a move intended to scare up concern among Senate Democrats that meaningful action on global […]

Barbara Boxer circulates an outline of her amendment to Lieberman-Warner

On Friday, Senate Environment and Public Works chair Barbara Boxer released an outline of what promises to be the version of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act that actually gets debated and amended on the Senate floor in early June. David posted the full document summarizing the manager’s amendment earlier today. It’s only an outline, not […]

Grist talks to underdog Oregon Senate contender Steve Novick

Tomorrow is the presidential primary in both Oregon and Kentucky, but it’s also a key Senate primary in Oregon, where two Democrats are facing off to see who will get to take a crack at unseating Gordon Smith, the sole GOP senator on the West Coast. When Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley announced his bid […]

New Senate alternatives to L-W would take climate policy backwards — way backwards

George Voinovich. There’s an important story in yesterday’s edition of E&E (as always, $ub. req’d) about two alternatives to Lieberman-Warner that have recently been floated in the Senate. One comes from Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and the other — not so much a bill as a “set of principles” — from a coalition of the […]

Renewables score big victory in the Senate

With today's green energy boom (and over 100,000 existing jobs in the wind and solar industries alone) hanging in the balance, the Senate voted this morning by an overwhelming 88 to 8 margin to attach short-term extensions of key clean energy tax incentives set to expire at the end of this year -- the Production Tax Credit that mostly goes to wind power, the Investment Tax Credit for solar, and other incentives for energy efficient appliances and the like -- to the housing bill that the Senate then went on to pass by an also overwhelming 84 to 12. (None of the presidential contenders were around for today's votes, for those keeping track of such things.)

(The overwhelming popularity of wind power was also clearly on display this morning. An effort by wind-hatin' Sen. Lamar Alexander [R-Tenn.] to double the extension to two years by cutting the subsidy to wind in half was trounced on a 15-79 vote -- fewer votes than similar efforts by Alexander have received in the past.)

Today's victory -- the first time this Congress that the Senate has approved even short-term extensions of these clean energy incentives -- is sweet, to be sure, as it underscores the strong, bipartisan support for these measures and the urgent need to extend them. However, unless the House and the Senate can bridge some key differences, this particular strategy may not ultimately result in victory on this make-or-break issue.