The Senate voted 48-36 this morning to move forward on the Climate Security
Act (S. 3036), falling short of the necessary 60-vote threshold and causing
consideration of the bill to end without any substantive votes on the
measure. An additional 6 senators, who missed the vote, submitted
statements indicating that they would have voted to move forward had they been
present.
The inconvenient truth is that the Republican leadership is too captive to
the polluters to confront global warming. Today’s action by the U.S.
Senate makes the cowardly lion seem courageous. Faced with an urgent
problem that demands action, the Senate passed the buck.
Global warming is the defining challenge of our time. Scientists warn
that if we don’t act quickly and boldly to reduce our emissions of global
warming pollution, the United States and the world risk devastating damage to
our environment, economy, and way of life.
The United States
must commit to the emission reductions science tells us are necessary, make
polluters pay for their pollution, and aggressively promote the energy
efficiency and renewable energy infrastructure that will enable us to
transition to a clean energy economy.
The solutions exist today that can get us much of the way there. And
states across the country are already making these solutions a reality.
Unfortunately, the Senate Republican leadership, backed by Big Oil and coal
and a presidential veto threat, made clear this week that they are intent on
blocking action on global warming. At every turn, they used procedural
maneuvers to obstruct consideration of the bill.
Next time around, the polluters and their allies in Congress won’t get off
so easy. In the weeks and months ahead, we’ll educate and mobilize the
American public on the urgent need for action to stop the worst effects of
global warming and the many opportunities inherent in a massive transition to a
clean energy economy, helping to pave the way for stronger legislation next year
that will get the job done.
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