PRESIDENT'S CORNER
By Norris McDonald
Before the ink dried on the passage of the global warming bill (S. 1733) out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EP&W), Senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham and Joseph Lieberman were promoting alternative legislation. And John Kerry is the cosponsor of S. 1733 with Barbara Boxer, Chairwoman of the Senate EP&W Committee. In fact, Senator Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, seems to be hedging his bets on getting climate change legislation by taking a route around his bill cosponsor. Is this a deal between them just to get legislation passed? After all, the Republicans on the EP&W Committee boycotted the mark up and none were presented to vote on the S. 1733.
Since S. 1733 will be the instrument going to the Senate floor for debate, I can only assume that Kerry and Lieberman are working with Graham to have a substitute ready when and if S. 1733 falters. One recommendation I have for the alternative legislation is to increase the amount of free offsets to participants from the 35% in S. 1733 to 97.7%. This will keep the cost down for us ratepayers and still provide the market mechanism needed for a successful program.
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