Climate Change Bill dies in the Senate

The Senate today brought the Climate Change Bill to an end, at least for this year, as it did not get the votes it needed to proceed.

The Senate begun debating the bill Monday. Democrats moved to end debate and move to a final vote, which required 60 votes to pass, but failed, with 48 in favor and 36 against. Take a look at how your state Senator voted here.

The bill would have required major reductions in greenhouse gases. Specifically, it would have required U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases to peak in 2012, then gradually decline by about 2 percent a year until 2050 - for a total reduction of about 66 percent from current levels.

For more details about the bill, read this posting from The San Francisco Chronicle.

Bill supporters drew attention to the gravity of the climate change crisis. Although absent, presidential candidate Barack Obama, said in a statement that "The future of our planet is at stake." Meanwhile, Senate majority leader Harry Reid called climate change "the most important issue facing the world today."

Democrats blamed the Republicans for the impasse. Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, issued this statement:

A reckless and cynical minority has denied the Senate—and the American
people—the meaningful and long overdo debate on global warming their
constituents have been clamoring for. While the Senate leadership and a
bi-partisan group of Senators sought to debate the solutions to our
ever-deepening environmental and economic crises, the Republican leadership
instead used theatrics to tie the Senate in knots for the sole purpose of
"making political points."

Even if the bill had pushed through the Senate, President Bush had threatened to veto the legislation. The bill may have a better chance next year with a new president who will hopefully understand the importance of doing something on a legislative level about the climate change crisis.