Senate panel holds hearings on climate legislation

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Senators tussled over the cost of climate legislation today, with the leading author of the bill maintaining that while energy prices will increase, inaction on global warming would cause even worse economic and security problems. “Are there some costs? Yes sir, there are some costs,” said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. But of the array of studies that show restricting greenhouse gases will lead to higher energy prices, he said, “none of them factor in the cost of doing nothing.”

Kerry was the leadoff witness as the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee began a series of marathon hearings this week on a bill that would cap greenhouse gas pollution from power plants and large industrial facilities. The bill aims to reduce emissions 80% by midcentury. Kerry is an author of the legislation.

Republican members of the panel were in lock step in their criticism of the so-called “cap-and-trade” legislation, characterizing it as a huge energy tax on average Americans.
“Cap and trade is very expensive. This is something the American people can’t tolerate and I don’t think they will,” said Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the panel’s ranking Republican and a vocal skeptic of climate change science.

-- Associated Press