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Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany told Congress ‘we have no time to lose’ in the effort to combat global warming. |
EU urges US climate plan as GOP boycotts Senate panel vote
US partisan rift evident during Merkel’s address
WASHINGTON - European leaders pressed Congress and the White House yesterday to unite on a plan to combat global warming before next month’s summit in Denmark, even as a Republican boycott forced a delay of votes in a key Senate committee, demonstrating the deep partisan rift.
An emotional plea for action by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in an address before Congress was met with silence from most Republicans, while Democrats stood and applauded.
“We all know we have no time to lose,’’ on a matter “in the interest of our children and grandchildren and in the interest of sustainable development all over the world,’’ said Merkel, who made the same plea earlier in a meeting with President Obama on a day of far-flung developments:
■ European Union leaders, also meeting with Obama at the White House, pressed anew for US action and for a larger US contribution to an international aid fund to help developing countries adapt to a warmer world.
■ In Barcelona, African delegates to a preliminary climate conference briefly boycotted the discussions over their concern that industrial nations will not have to make significant enough reductions in greenhouse gases.
■ Al Gore, a leading voice for action on global warming, said he expects Obama to visit the Copenhagen conference to reinforce the country’s commitment.
The White House and Democratic leaders in Congress have essentially abandoned prospects of getting a climate bill to the president’s desk before the Copenhagen conference Dec. 7. But the president and congressional leaders hope a show of progress will show the world the US is taking climate change seriously.
However, when Senator Barbara Boxer of California convened her environment committee to start voting on the 959-page climate bill she and Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts had fashioned, she was faced with a Republican boycott. Only Senator George Voinovich of Ohio showed up and he stayed only for 15 minutes to demand a closer analysis of the bill’s cost and impact on jobs.
The bill calls for cutting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and industrial facilities 20 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by mid-century. Republicans say the bill amounts to a massive energy tax because it would force a shift away from cheaper fossil fuels such as coal and raise electricity and other energy prices.
Voinovich said an analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency cited by Boxer falls far short of what is needed and was based on a House-passed bill that he said is significantly different from the bill before the Senate.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
