GOP senator abandons bill to cut emissions
Key vote shifts after push from White House
WASHINGTON -- Attempts to require US industries to cut carbon dioxide emissions as a way to address global warming appear to be headed for defeat in the Senate after a key Republican withdrew his support amid White House lobbying to keep greenhouse gas control programs voluntary.
Senator Pete V. Domenici, the New Mexico Republican who chairs the Senate Energy Committee, had indicated he would support a proposal to cap industrial carbon dioxide emissions, an attempt to address climate change. That left environmental groups hopeful that the Senate would defy the Bush administration and for the first time force companies to cut the emissions, which many scientists have tied to global warming.
But after meeting late last week with Vice President Dick Cheney -- and huddling Monday with about 10 GOP Senate colleagues -- Domenici opted out of supporting the amendment that was being prepared by his fellow New Mexico senator, Democrat Jeff Bingaman.
That meant Bingaman's amendment apparently lacks enough Republican votes to pass, and he is considering withdrawing it today.
Another proposal with stricter emissions caps by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, will be voted on today, but it is widely expected to fail.
Democrats accused President Bush of blocking lawmakers from addressing what some scientists say is a leading cause of global warming. Senate minority leader Harry Reid said Bush and Cheney have convinced Republican senators to join them in bowing to energy companies.
''The White House is the administration of the oil companies," said Reid, a Nevada Democrat. Both President Bush and Vice President Cheney worked for oil companies, and it's obvious that global warming [legislation] is something the oil companies don't want."
Domenici said he chose not to support the amendment because he was concerned there wasn't a sensible way to enforce the caps, not because of White House lobbying.
He said it would be unfair to require nuclear power plants, which are relatively clean, to cut their emissions as much as aging coal-burning plants, which are major producers of carbon dioxide.
''If everyone gets the same dose of medicine, it would never work," Domenici said.
Domenici said he will hold hearings in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to work on what he said would be a fairer emissions-cap proposal.
Yesterday, the Senate voted 66-29 to expand tax credits and incentives for private-sector companies that find new ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The amendment, introduced by Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, includes no mandatory caps and parallels existing Bush administration policies. It passed primarily with Republican votes.
''Innovation and technology are the building blocks for an effective and sustainable climate policy," Hagel said. ''There are viable policy options for protecting the environment without sacrificing economic performance in the manufacturing and other sectors."
But McCain blasted the Hagel amendment and said it will have ''no bearing" on global warming. ''Climate change is real, it's happening, and as we speak, we will see things happening to our environment which will have long-term devastating effects to this globe on which we reside . . . The time for reports has passed," he said.
The McCain-Lieberman amendment would cut carbon dioxide output to 2000 levels by 2010 through mandatory emissions caps.
But a version of that measure was defeated in the Senate 55-43 two years ago, and it could lose by a wider margin this year, since the Senate has four more Republicans.
Environmental groups said they are disappointed that the Senate isn't going further in addressing global warming, but said the fact that the Senate is having the debate is significant.
''For the first time, it's not about whether it's happening, but about how we're going to address it," said Marchant Wentworth, a legislative representative for the Union of Concerned Scientists. 