I am pleased that a majority of my colleagues in the U.S. Senate voted to move the debate of climate change forward as embracing the status quo is not the right solution to one of the 21st century’s largest environmental and economic challenges.  The costs of inaction will be too great and I pledge to continue the fight for federal legislation next year.

This is the time to be taking bold action to address the welfare of our planet.  We would actually have had a total of 54 ayes as absent Senators either wrote letters or issued statements that they would have voted with us to continue the debate.

For 150 years, the U.S. has led the world in major technological innovations, and the nation cannot afford to sit out the next round.  The world is moving to a low-carbon economy, and the U.S. needs strong national climate policy now to drive investments in the made-in-America technologies that will get us there — and create high paying jobs right here at home.  Over half of the states in this country are already way ahead of the U.S. Congress on this critical issue.

The Congress should be following the lead of courageous states like Maine who have partnered with 11 other Northeast states for a Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) to cap emissions of greenhouse gases from the power sector at 188 million short tons a year from 2009 to 2014.  After that, the cap will be ratcheted down 2.5 percent a year through 2018 to reach a goal of overall emissions reduction of 10 percent by 2020.  How, this is what I call taking action on climate change.  Maine has already pledged, along with at least four other states, to auction off all of their credits in its cap and trade program to bring in revenues to increase energy efficiencies and renewable energy and at the same time protecting consumers against an unforeseen consequences.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Politics, Energy/Environment .