Hill Heat: Climate Proposals Stoke Tempers in House Committee
Stephen Power reports:
The Waxman era begins: The first congressional hearing of 2009 on climate change got off to an acrimonious start Thursday, as House Republicans blasted a group of corporate CEOs and environmental groups for staging a press conference instead of appearing before the House Ènergy and Commerce Committee to answer lawmakers’ questions about their ideas for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The Republicans also vowed to hold members of the US Climate Action Partnership accountable for their own use of fossil fuels, by demanding they explain to the committee whether they traveled to Washington by corporate aircraft and how much fuel they used.
“Be prepared for a battle,” Illinois Republican John Shimkus said at the start of the hearing by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Mr. Shimkus vowed to “hold accountable” any Democrats from coal-abundant and petroleum-producing states who vote in favor of legislation to cap greenhouse gas emissions and set up an emissions trading system in which companies would have to buy permits allowing them to pollute.
Mr. Shimkus and other Republicans called such legislation, which is favored by President-elect Barack Obama, “a shell game designed to hide” the true costs of regulation from consumers.
The comments came at the first hearing on climate change chaired by California’s Henry Waxman after he defeated Michigan’s John Dingell last year for the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The rhetorical war suggests the road to passing climate-change legislation will be rocky, at least in the House.
The committee is scheduled to hear testimony later this morning from from the CEOs of General Electric, Duke Energy and other corporations that belong to the US Climate Action Partnership. The group is in Washington to unveil its proposed “blueprint” for climate-change legislation. Republicans on the panel said they had been given an hour and a half to view the group’s written recommendations; had been denied a chance to seat a witness on the same dais as the CEOs; and that the CEOs would be available for questions from the panel for only two hours - a time frame Republicans said was inadequate.
In response, Mr. Waxman said lawmakers would have a chance to quiz other representatives of the companies and that “this is not the last hearing” he plans to hold on the matter.
UPDATE: Mr. Waxman will suffer no delays in tackling climate change, whatever his House colleagues may think. He said he intends to pass climate-change legislation out of committee by Memorial Day.
Total scam - I have lost all respect for Immelt (GE) and Rogers (Duke) for signing on.
It is sickening how clueless lawmakers are. There is no scientific evidence to support that climate change is due to humans.
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The climate is changing, as it always has, however, there is NO EVIDENCE that man is doing it.
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This is a complete farce and we all will pay more tax dollars and suffer with less energy because of it.
Everyone knows man made climate change is false. Yet the media and politicians push this garbage!
The people have absolutely no representation any more. And as for the media, which swallows this without question, they no longer represent us either, which is why TV networks and newspapers are dying.
(01-14) 04:00 PST Washington - — Steven Chu, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to lead the Energy Department, is known for his scientific prowess as a Nobel laureate physicist and director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. . . . .
He appealed to Democrats on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee with a pledge to forcefully advocate for Obama’s plans to FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE . . .
IN UNDERTAKING TO IMPLEMENT OBAMA’S PLANS TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE,
AS HE NOW APPARENTLY PROPOSES TO DO,
MR. CHU, DESPITE HIS SCIENTIFIC CREDENTIALS,
MAY HAVE BITTEN OFF MORE THAN HE CAN CHEW.
Seriously…don’t these people understand the man-made global warming hoax is completely busted? Do they need to see it “tested” by Adam and Jamie?
I really hope the people will still have a voice that cannot be drowned out by the MSM.
What is even more sickening is that the media never once gives reporting of any scientific studies. Global warming does exist, but it is a natural phenomenon, and not man-made. However, the media looks at the effect and jumps all over-it, without considering the cause.
The US and the world are plunging headlong over a cliff, with Gore, Waxman, Obama, etal at the head of the charge. Woohoo! Let’s all jump!
So unbelievable, yet so understandable.
Our leadership must just be overworked. Sigh.
Environmental Capital provides daily news and analysis of the business of the environment. It tracks how growing green concern, particularly over climate change, is roiling established industries and spurring new ones – and how that shift is affecting investors, consumers and the planet. The Journal's Keith Johnson, who spent the past decade reporting from Europe, increasingly on energy issues, is the lead writer. The Journal’s Jeffrey Ball, who has covered the auto and oil industries and now covers the business of the environment, is the blog’s editor and a contributor. Environmental Capital also includes contributions from others at the Journal, WSJ.com, and Dow Jones Newswires. Write us at 
