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John Kerry's Political Instincts on Cap and Trade

By W. James Antle, III on 10.1.09 @ 9:36AM

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) told MSNBC that he is "convinced" the Senate cap-and-trade bill he introduced with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) yesterday has a chance to pass. According to the Hill, Kerry said, ""I'm convinced it has a shot." Kerry-Boxer is even more stringent in some respects than Waxman-Markey, calling for a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions compared to the 17 percent required by the bill that narrowly passed the House.

Well, if there is a "shot," someone forgot to tell key moderate Democrats. Roll Call reported that Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said, "I am not committed to [carbon] cap-and-trade under any circumstance." Ditto Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), who just said, "It's a difficult issue." Someone also forgot to ask Sen. John McCain, a Republican supporter of cap-and-trade, if he'd back the bill. Fortunately, Reuters didn't: "Of course not. Never, never, never." McCain is steamed about the "lip service" paid to nuclear energy in the Democratic bill.

If moderate Democrats, Rust Belt Democrats, and moderate Republicans aren't on board, cap-and-trade will be harder to pass than health care. Some shot.

UPDATE: Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.), protecting the interests of his state's coal industry, has also come out against the Kerry-Boxer bill: "The climate legislation proposed today by Senators Boxer and Kerry is a disappointing step in the wrong direction and I am against it."

View all comments (7) | Leave a comment

Rmoen| 10.1.09 @ 11:09AM

Support for cap-and-trade has evaporated. Daily I read editorials, comments and letters-to-the-editor from all over the nation. When the House passed the cap-and-trade bill it was maybe 2-to-1 against cap-and-trade, opinion now is off the charts against it.

Frankly, I don't see Americans supporting cap-and-trade or any CO2 regulation until we have our own Climate Truth Commission. We now largely out-source our climate science to the United Nations, a political organization advancing a "consensus" view that CO2 drives global warming. The problem is, their view is neither a consensus and can't possibly be 100% correct because they don't factor-in clouds and solar activity. ...and UN forecasts for the last 10 years do not fit what actually happened.
-- Robert Moen, www.energyplanUSA.com

Mark C| 10.1.09 @ 12:20PM

That is only four senators, and Senator Kerry has said, it is yet to be discussed in the Senate. I am certain McCain and Rockefeller can be pursuaded to go along with certain concessions and Kerry has said Senator Boxer and him are both willing to make some changes. As for Landrieu, she is a frightened little mouse- no Democrat ever counts on her to vote on anything that might hurt her chances for reelection. And, Bayh, we can do without his vote also. There are many in the Senate that know these changes are necessary and with a little tweeking, I think Kerry is correct, and this bill will pass. I doubt he would atempt it if he didn't feel it was in the best interest of our country and this was the time to get it done.
Stop being such a naysayer, progress is a good thing.

W. James Antle III| 10.1.09 @ 12:28PM

These are just examples. I've provided other examples of Democratic skepticism of cap and trade in the past. But even if it were just these four, that's more than enough to deny them cloture.

chris| 10.1.09 @ 5:11PM

It sounds like something we need right now, jobs and clean energy.

Elroy Jetson| 10.2.09 @ 1:53AM

chris,
Nice to see you have so much faith in the government creating a new industry. 55 to 65 percent of us have reviewed DC's track record of such grandeous propositions and have decided that this is BS. Too much corruption inside the beltway.

Deb Pattington| 10.8.09 @ 7:20PM

Good to hear Senator Rockefeller is standing up for his state! States like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia will be hit the hardest. They are heavy coal producing states and most Americans aren't even aware that our country's electricity is produced by at least 50% coal. That' s a huge number to just think about shipping all those jobs across seas and increasing our electric bills. Urge your Senators to stand up for their states too!

http://www.dontcapandtradeourjobs.net/?=terraCO

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