Senate Votes Signal New Phase in Global Warming Policy

But Senators Fall Short of Taking Real Action

Posted: 23-Jun-2005; Updated: 20-Feb-2007

It's been a week of mixed results on climate change. While the Senate votes fell short of a real solution, the debate and results point to welcome change.

Three Key Votes
The Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act, sponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT), is the only proposal that guarantees global warming pollution would go down in the U.S., not up. (More about the bill's provisions.) It failed to pass as an amendment to the energy bill, by a vote of 38-60. See how each Senator voted.

Instead, the Senate passed a proposal by Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) by a vote of 66 to 29. While it does not go far enough to apply brakes to global warming, its tax subsidies for cleaner technologies are solid proof of a change in attitude.

"The Hagel bill is an inadequate response to a very serious problem," said Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense. "But it does signal the shift from debating whether we should do something to what we intend to do. We must do better, but we have begun."

In a final move, the Senate passed a nonbinding "Sense of the Senate Resolution" with 54 votes. It put on record, for the first time, a majority of the Senate recognizing the need for a mandatory cap on America's global warming pollution.

Moving From Talk to Action
Progress from "Is it a problem?" to "How do we solve it?" was evident in the three hours of debate on the McCain-Lieberman amendment.

Quoting a recent USA Today headline on global warming, Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) stated: "Debate Over." Ohio Republican Senator Mike DeWine echoed this sentiment in his floor speech, in which the phrase "climate change is happening" occurred no fewer than three times. DeWine, who voted no the last time the Senate weighed in on the issue in October of 2003, applauded the efforts of Sens. McCain and Lieberman. While he was unable to vote in favor of their bill, he expressed interest in working with the senators to craft similar legislation that would change the baseline for emissions reductions and set a new compliance year.

"During the debate on the McCain Lieberman bill, Sen. Mike DeWine captured the sense of the Senate when he said, 'History is on the side of a bill similar to this,'" said Steve Cochran, director of strategic communications at Environmental Defense.

Keeping Up With the World, Technologically and Economically
Recognizing that global warming is no longer purely an environmental issue, senators argued different strategies for addressing new technological and economic challenges. With so much of the industrialized world working toward reducing carbon through the Kyoto Protocol's market system, several senators pointed out that America's current position is putting us at a disadvantage for finding new technologies and innovative ways to combat the problem. Sen. DeWine noted that we're losing our technological edge. "Japan and Europe are developing the technologies," said DeWine. "This much is obvious. If we do not do something, in a few years we'll be creating jobs that won't be in the United States. They'll be in Europe; they'll be in Japan. They'll be in other places. That's not the way to go."

Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) also recognized America's leadership role, reasoning that it is "impossible for us to encourage countries like China and India to do the right thing ... if we are unable to make these modest steps" to decrease the amount of emissions. If rich countries like the U.S. can't do it, he argued, it will be a lot harder to get developing countries to sign on.

Continuing the Fight, Building on Progress
Clearly, this week's action is promising for a national policy on climate change. As California's Senator Dianne Feinstein (D) noted in her remarks in the Senate on Tuesday afternoon, around the country, governors and legislators are filling the federal government's void. Some 167 state and local governments have put global warming policy on the books. Noting California's landmark global warming vehicle law and the recent executive order setting the framework for cutting global warming pollution, she encouraged the federal government to catch up.

"The drive of Senators McCain and Lieberman to continually bring this issue before the Senate, coupled with the undeniable science of climate change, has resulted in a real change in the Senate," said Krupp. 

How You Can Help
Support from Environmental Defense members -- letters, phone calls, donations and more -- helps keep the issue of global warming front and center and moved the Senate to these votes. Your support matters even more as we continue our work. Email your political leaders, urge them to follow through on their resolution, and ask them to show strong leadership in the fight against global warming.