If environmentalists want to make real progress on energy and climate
legislation in this Congress, I hope someone also will be paying attention to
the Senate Finance Committee headed by Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia.
Sen. Byrd obviously has to represent many of the interests of the West Virginia
coal industry, and in 1995 I think he introduced the Senate resolution that
received almost unanimous support, forbidding the US to sign the Kyoto Treaty
until its provisions were changed to cover CO2 emissions by China.
Why Sen. Byrd got such overwhelming Senate support for his
anti-Kyoto resolution in '95 is arguably not just because of the economics and
politics involved, but also because as chair of the Senate Finance Committee,
he has his finger on most Senate legislation having to do with money.
Can environmentalists and others who are righly
concerned about global climate change somehow craft legislation in this coming
session that will enlist Byrd's support, and not his implacable opposition? I
believe that the environmental lobby had better start formulating plans on how
to do this, or face quiet and effective efforts to block whatever good things
come out of Sen. Boxer's Environment Committee.
Brad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Sen. Boxer has announced the subcommittee assignments for the Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee.
Barbara Boxer's in charge of "Public Sector Solutions to Global
Warming" and Joe Lieberman is in charge of "Private Sector and Consumer
Solutions to Global Warming". Boxer's subcommittee is a mishmash of her
pet issues whereas Lieberman's subcommittee is more rational -- other
than global warming it covers just wildlife.
Still, there's not a particularly coherent integration of dealing with
global warming with related public works issues.
In reality, Max Baucus's subcommittee will be dealing with a lot of
global warming-related topics: transportation, the Federal Highway
Administration, public buildings, and green buildings. And Tom Carper
is in charge of the Clean Air Act (CO2 regulation!) and the Economic
Development Administration.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated
venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of
global environmental change.
Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the
submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not
gratuitously rude.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
