The legislation for climate change sparked a boycott from the Republican Party on Thursday in spite of the Senate committee’s backing. The bill was passed to the full chamber after a 10-1 vote from Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. An amendment was not attained; however, due to the boycott as rules require the presence of at least two minority party members to conduct necessary amendments and other businesses. But the committee went on with the voting process as majority of the members were on hand.
Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma found the bill to be perilous and required a full Environmental Protection Agency analysis on the economic impact. Sen. Barbara Boxer of California noted; however, that hearings have been conducted, 300,000 pages of analysis have been compiled, and sessions with the EPA have been scheduled. She also commented that the Republicans’ reaction to the conducted EPA analysis as unsatisfactory is uncalled for.
“You can’t compromise when somebody says something that’s just flat-out wrong,” Boxer said, speaking against the boycott.
Senators John Kerry, D-Mass., Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut said on Wednesday that they are working on negotiations to offset any attempts to stall the bill.
Democrats along with U.S. President Barack Obama are pushing for a congress decision on the bill, designed to reduce greenhouse emissions and control the country’s dependence on fossil fuels, before the U.N. climate change talk in December. The talks will take place in Copenhagen and will be used as a venue to instigate a new global climate change discussion to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
Republicans, however, contest that the bill is advantageous to other countries and may pull the U.S. economy further down.
