Now Baucus Wants to Mess With the Climate Bill

[seafan]

Kate Sheppard writes at Mother Jones:


October 28, 2009

With Lindsey Graham offering support for climate legislation and other Republicans making sympathetic noises too, the prospects for a climate bill had been brightening recently. Or at least they were—until Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) made it clear on Tuesday that he won't vote for the Senate proposal in its current form.

Up until now, Baucus has been too preoccupied with health care reform to devote much time to climate issues. But his ability to gum up the works is significant. He's a member of Sen. Barbara Boxer's Environment and Public Works committee, which will mark up the bill and must approve the measure before it can be considered by the wider Senate. As chair of the Finance Committee, Baucus has also indicated that he plans to assert jurisdiction over how the bill allocates emissions permits.

.....

In particular, Baucus listed "serious reservations" about the bill's near-term emissions reduction target, which aims to cut emissions 20 percent by 2020. That's already a lower target than climate scientists say is necessary—and is easily attainable given the fact that emissions have already declined in the recession. Baucus was also displeased that the bill recognizes the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act. And he hinted at more parochial concerns as well, like his home state's agriculture and coal sectors. "Montana, with our resource-based agriculture and tourism economies, cannot afford the unmitigated impacts of climate change," he said. "But we also cannot afford the unmitigated effects of climate-change legislation."

There is one bright spot: Because Democrats on the Environment and Public Works committee have a 12-7 majority, they could move the bill forward without Baucus or his fellow moderate on the panel, Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), who has also expressed reservations. (That still (wouldn't) stop Baucus from holding the bill up in the Finance Committee later, though.) At Tuesday's hearing Boxer indicated that she's in no mood for funny business. When Ohio Republican George Voinovich complained that her bill isn't bipartisan, Boxer (retorted) that climate change isn't either. "Global warming isn't waiting for who's a Democrat or who's a Republican," Boxer said. "Either we're going to deal with this problem, or we're not."

I'll wager that Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer is already strapping on her brass knuckles.


It's time for the KO punch on Baucus.



He and Lieberman are two peas in a pod.



—Photo by flickr user Center for American Progress Action Fund used under a Creative Commons license.

[tmyers09]

1. When can this dumb son of a bitch get voted out?

[FiveGoodMen]

2. What the fuck does it actually mean to be a Democrat?

Seriously, it's just a word...

...until the party stops supporting assholes like Baucus, Lieberman, etc.

[butterfly77]

3. What is the DNC or any other Dem organization..

doing to get people to run against these people. I heard some senator or congressman on Ed Shultz complaining about we need to stop because they are defending their rural voters.

I think these mfers don't even know who their base really is. He sounded as though he was making some sort of a threat I've got to find out who that was talking to Ed.. The way I am feeling who gives a damn if they lose their seats let their so called base find out what the repugs are really about..