Senate Approves Climate Bill by a Vote of 11-1

 

Senator Barbara Boxer held the door open for Republicans to return to the table, when she was given the go ahead by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to proceed with the mark up of S. 1733 without any Republicans present.
Courtesy of New America Foundation

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chair of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, started work on climate change legislation with hearings October 27, 28, and 29 on S. 1733, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. Boxer introduced the bill with Senator John Kerry (D-MA) on September 30. This bill could affect everything that has emissions from work trucks, utility vehicles, leaf blowers and lawn mowers.

Ranking Republican members of six committees with jurisdiction over the climate legislation communicated by letter to Boxer their concerns with the potential economic impacts of the bill, stating that they were “deeply troubled by the failure to accommodate a request from Senator George Voinovich and other Republicans for a complete analysis of the bill's projected impacts on the nation.”

In a letter responding to the six members, Boxer stated that, "EPA has confirmed that the extensive analysis and supporting materials provided to the Committee are totally sufficient and appropriate for our legislative process." In an earlier press conference, she indicated that EPA had conducted extensive and lengthy analyses of the House Waxman-Markey bill and then conducted further analyses to assess the portions of the Boxer-Kerry bill that were substantially different from Waxman-Markey, which Boxer estimated to be 10 percent.

– Courtesy of AASHTO