EPW Debate on Lieberman Warner

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the chairman of the Environment & Public Works Committee, declared in her opening floor speech today that a “recession is the precise time to” enact the Lieberman-Warner global warming cap-and-trade bill because it “brings us hope.”

The Lieberman-Warner global warming bill would have many consequences, but “hope’ is not among them. The Cleveland Plain Dealer editorialized on June 1, that the bill “will just bore new holes into an already battered economy.” American workers, already suffering from a weakening economy, skyrocketing home energy, and gas prices would face more economic pain under the bill. With average gas prices across the country approaching or at $4 a gallon, the Senate’s global warming “de-stimulus” bill will further drive up the cost at the pump.

Despite these economic woes, Senator Boxer claimed that now is the “precise time” to pass a bill that will raise energy prices. “Why do this [the Lieberman-Warner bill] now? We’re in a recession. Precisely because we’re in a recession is why we should be doing this. This bill is the first thing that brings us hope,” Senator Boxer said during her opening remarks on the Senate floor today. 

Senator Inhofe said on April 20, 2008: “Only in Washington could higher energy prices be characterized as not negatively impacting the U.S. economy. If Democrats have their way, Americans will pay significantly more at the pump, in their homes, and in many cases, with their jobs, all to accomplish an undetectable impact on the climate. The question now is which U.S. Senator will dare to stand on the Senate Floor a month from now to vote in favor of significantly increasing the price of gas at the pump?”

Here is a sampling of economic government and private economic analyses of the impact of Boxer’s Climate Tax Bill. Read more of the impact of the Lieberman Warner Bill here.

Read Senator Inhofe’s editorial in the Wall Street Journal this morning ”We Don’t Need a Climate Tax on the Poor” and this Roll Call story on Global Warming Draws Heat From Democrats. See Boxer’s claim the biggest tax in history is really the biggest tax cut in history here.