Climate Bills and a Green Economy

Carbon Tax Bill May Be Dead After Graham's Shocking Reversal on Climate Change

June 10, 2010

Prison Planet.com - The plan to impose a carbon tax on American citizens may be dead at least for the time being after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham shockingly reversed his views on climate change, telling a press conference that the science behind man-made global warming is in question and those pushing it are alarmists who have oversold the problem.

South Carolina Republican Graham told reporters that he would vote against the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill he helped author as a consequence of his reversal, meaning the package will fall short of the votes it needs to obtain passage, according to a Senate aide.

In an October 2009 New York Times op-ed co-authored with Sen. John Kerry, Graham argued, that “climate change is real and threatens our economy and national security.” However, following the evisceration of trust in promoters of man-made global warming in the aftermath of the Climategate scandal, Graham has now sensationally reversed his position, stating:

“The science about global warming has changed. I think they’ve oversold this stuff, quite frankly. I think they’ve been alarmist and the science is in question,” adding, “The whole movement has taken a giant step backward.”

Answering a follow up question, Graham noted that, “The public acceptance about global warming has changed,” possibly referring to polls which now indicate that the majority of Americans do not believe in the reality of man-made climate change.

Insiders say that Graham’s reversal all but kills the cap and trade provision that was contained in the Kerry-Lieberman bill.

“I just can’t see where we’d get 60 votes for a comprehensive energy bill with a cap on carbon at this point,” the aide to a senator on the Environment and Public Works Committee, who is closely involved with the issue, told Raw Story.

However, the elite are still desperate to impose a consumption tax on Americans as part of the move towards a “post-industrial revolution” and the kind of nightmare “green economy” that has left Spain with a 20 per cent unemployment rate. In a so-called green economy, over 2.2 jobs are lost for every “green job” created.

The Senate is expected to try and push a watered down bill with the hope of moving towards a carbon tax later on.

“If we passed a bill that has a good renewable energy standard, has strong building codes, invests in efficiency and raises fuel economy, we’re on the path to lowering emissions, and it makes it easier to pass cap and trade later,” argued the aide, who requested anonymity.

As we previously reported, Graham withdrew his support for both the Democrat’s pro-amnesty immigration bill and cap and trade legislation just a week after ALIPAC (Americans for Legal Immigration PAC) Chairman Gheen gave a speech in which he demanded that Graham come clean on the fact that he was being blackmailed over his homosexuality. [See Politicians March to the Tune of the Controlling Elite.]



Graham’s support for legislation that was highly unpopular amongst his own constituents strongly suggested that he was being strong-armed into toeing the line on policies being pushed by the Washington establishment.

Now that Gheen’s allegations are out in the open, Graham may feel that the heat is off and he can abandon his endorsement of unpopular legislation and concentrate on trying to keep his Senate seat.

Graham Backs U.S. Energy Bill Without Carbon Cap He Once Sought

June 9, 2010

Bloomberg - Senator Lindsey Graham, who worked for months on legislation to cap carbon emissions, backed an alternative aimed at curbing greenhouse-gas emissions through incentives for energy conservation.

The new bill, offered today by Senator Richard Lugar, a Republican from Indiana, would require new homes, businesses and appliances to use less energy, encourage states and utilities to adopt more renewable power and provide incentives for building nuclear reactors and retiring coal-fired power plants.

The Senate will take up “comprehensive clean-energy” legislation next month, Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, has said, without setting out the provisions. Graham in April dropped support of a measure he helped develop calling for a “cap-and-trade” system to limit carbon emissions and create a market in pollution allowances, starting with utilities.

“The carrot-stick approach is the basis of cap-and- trade,” Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said at a news conference today where he endorsed Lugar’s measure. “This is a carrot-stick approach, but there are more carrots than sticks.”

Lugar’s bill may be able to muster the 60 votes needed for Senate passage because it wouldn’t cap emissions or expand offshore drilling, two controversial issues in the Senate, Graham said.

Graham had worked with Senators John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, to develop the earlier measure. He dropped his support after Democrats began talking of taking up legislation on immigration first. He later said the BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico made it impossible to pass that effort at a compromise, which included plans for more offshore exploration.

Lugar said his legislation would cost $3.75 billion over five years, reduce dependence on foreign oil by more than 40 percent, and decrease national energy consumption by 11 percent by 2030.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu commended Lugar’s efforts to reduce U.S. dependence on oil and increase energy efficiency while faulting the measure’s failure to incorporate carbon limits.

“We need comprehensive legislation that puts a price on carbon and makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy,” Chu said in a letter today to the senator.

The legislation would “fail to cut global warming emissions to the level scientists say is necessary to avoid the worst of consequences of climate change,” the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental advocacy group based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said in a statement.

The bill was called an “amnesty for big polluters” by Frank O’Donnell, president of the Washington-based environmental group Clean Air Watch. He said the measure would let utilities avoid certain requirements of the Clean Air Act.