Senate votes 95-0 against climate bill

[David Martin]

Excerpted from Byrd/Hagel resolution;

Whereas the exemption for Developing Country Parties is inconsistent with the need for global action on climate change and is environmentally flawed;

Whereas the Senate strongly believes that the proposals under negotiation, because of the disparity of treatment between Annex I Parties and Developing Countries and the level of required emission reductions, could result in serious harm to the United States economy, including significant job loss, trade disadvantages, increased energy and consumer costs, or any combination thereof; and

Whereas it is desirable that a bipartisan group of Senators be appointed by the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate for the purpose of monitoring the status of negotiations on Global Climate Change and reporting periodically to the Senate on those negotiations: Now, therefore, be it


Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--

(1) the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol to, or other agreement regarding, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992, at negotiations in Kyoto in December 1997, or thereafter, which would--

(A) mandate new commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the Annex I Parties, unless the protocol or other agreement also mandates new specific scheduled commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for Developing Country Parties within the same compliance period, or

(B) would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States; and

(2) any such protocol or other agreement which would require the advice and consent of the Senate to ratification should be accompanied by a detailed explanation of any legislation or regulatory actions that may be required to implement the protocol or other agreement and should also be accompanied by an analysis of the detailed financial costs and other impacts on the economy of the United States which would be incurred by the implementation of the protocol or other agreement.

SEC. 2. The Secretary of the Senate shall transmit a copy of this resolution to the President.

Based on this alone, Cap & Trade should be dead in the water. Paragraph 1 above clearly states that this applies to Kyoto and anything "thereafter" of a similar nature.

Most of todays senators were in office when this passed in 1997, 95 voted yea, 5 did not vote. It appears to me that they all need to be reminded of this resolution.

Here is a link to the full text of the bill
http://www.nationalcenter.org/KyotoSenate.html

And a link to the roll call
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vot...

[Anne Loftfield]

Instead of sending letters with our arguments against crap & Tax, lets flood them with copies of this resolution, especially to all the old ones!! Post this on groups to get more attention. Thanks, David for digging this up!

[Shane Hanson]

While that is a fantastic peace of legislation it does bring forth the bigger problem we face.

Here we have the bill they legislated to stop this kind of garbage and they can now easily resend it and pass Cap and Trade.

This is how democracy works the majority tramples in the rights of a minority forcing their will on them. While I think this global climate change thing is hoax that bill you just referenced is an example of conservatives forcing their will on the minority. And now that they have reversed the tables on us and have become the majority they will force their will on the minority, us.

And so through all of time back and forth we will go till finally they pass legislation that stops us from reversing their agenda.

We all need to realize that legislation was never intended to favor any particular side of an issue. It was always to be "A" political, neutral. And until we stop submitting bills that force our will on others and start standing for constitutional principals we will slowly lose the entire battle.

[David Martin]

I disagree. This is an example of responsible legislation, it was a unanimous vote, nothing was forced on anyone. The 219-212 vote recently in the House was an example of the majority forcing its will, not on the minority, but on the majority of the population, whom by any poll are against Cap & Trade.

While it is possible for the bill to be rescinded, I doubt very much that they will, as that would draw attention to it, which is the last thing they want.

Anne is right, copies of this bill should be sent to all senators, particularly those that voted yes on it. If they intend to change their mind and vote yes on Cap & Trade, they must be made to explain themselves.

[Shane Hanson]

I agree its responsible. But is it constitutional? Two wrongs don't make a right. Unconstitutional legislation just propagates bad legislative techniques that we are now having to stop the other side from employing.

We can not have it both ways here either we want a constitutional republic or we want a democracy (mob rule).

And I doubt they will rescind it as well. But since when have they ever obeyed the law. They keep breaking the "law of the land" so I am sure they can walk right past this as if it didn't exist, just like they do us, and pass Cap and Trade. Unless by some miracle we can get them to pay attention to us.

And I also agree we should send a copy to our legislatures.

But the ultimate point of my argument goes beyond this small struggle and to the core of the fight we face and how we may need to change our thinking to get back to what our Founding Fathers envisioned for this nation if we want our freedom back.