Inhofe: Cap-and-Trade DOA in Senate
Thursday, July 9, 2009 7:32 PM
The cap-and-trade bill to curb carbon emissions has passed the House of Representatives, but there's "not any way in the world" that it will pass the Senate, Sen. Jim Inhofe tells Newsmax.
The Oklahoma Republican, Ranking Minority Member on the Committee on Environment and Public Works, says the bill — strongly backed by the Obama administration and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — currently has only 34 supporters in the Senate.
See Video: Sen. Jim Inhofe discusses the death of the costly cap-and-trade legislation in the Senate - Click Here Now
That is not only far short of the 60 votes needed to defeat a filibuster, it is also short of the 51 votes needed for a majority in the Senate.
The House bill requires a 17 percent reduction of greenhouse gases — mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels such as coal — by 2020 from 2005 levels, and about an 80 percent reduction by mid-century. It would also allow polluters to buy and sell emission allowances as a way to ease the cost of compliance.
"The House of Representatives passed it with 219 votes," Sen. Inhofe told Newsmax.TV's Ashley Martella.
"That's just one over the 218 that would be required. So there's a lot of arm-twisting.
"All the far-left extremist environmentalists were celebrating. The Al Gore guys thought it was the greatest day in the world. And yet they knew all the time that there's not any way in the world they're going to be able to get that passed out of the Senate.
"We had a committee meeting back when the Republicans were the majority. I chaired the Environment and Public Works Committee. Now it's Barbara Boxer, so you have a little bit different philosophy there. She's doing everything she can to try to get a cap-and-trade bill passed, but she cannot do it.
"I'm counting votes over here and the most votes she'll be able to come up with are 34. Of course you need 60 in the Senate."
Inhofe said "great news" came out of a recent hearing at the Committee on Environment and Public Works
"We had Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. I [said to her], 'You know, there are a lot of people out there who really believe that manmade gases cause global warming. I don’t believe that, and science does not agree with that now. But if you do believe it, I have to ask you this question: What good would it do for us to unilaterally, in the United States, pass a cap-and-trade tax, which would be the largest tax increase in the history of our country, if we know that China and India and the great polluters around the world are not going to join in?'
I asked, "Is it going to reduce CO2 emissions if we alone in America pass a cap-and-trade bill?' She said no it would not.
"That is probably the major victory in the last 10 years that I've had in fighting this hoax that has been perpetrated on the America people."
Martella noted that supporters of cap-and-trade will likely put great pressure on liberal senators to support the bill, and asked if they might eventually garner enough votes to pass the measure.
Inhofe responded: "We have a lot of new Democrats who really don't want to go back to their state and say, 'Look at me. Aren't you proud? I helped pass the largest tax increase in the history of America.'
"They're not going to do it."
See Video: Sen. Jim Inhofe discusses the death of the costly cap-and-trade legislation in the Senate - Click Here Now
http://video.newsmax.com/?bcpid=20972460...8999256001
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