June 23, 2005

STATEMENT ON PASSAGE OF THE BINGAMAN-SPECTER RESOLUTION ON GLOBAL WARMING

Arthur Stamoulis, Director of Government Affairs:

“It’s nice to see that the U.S. Senate has finally caught up with the rest of the world in the view that global warming is a serious enough problem to require mandatory pollution controls. Now if they’ll only act on that belief, we’ll be getting somewhere.

“Passage of the Bingaman-Specter resolution is a step in the right direction, but Congress cannot delay implementing pollution reduction measures any further. Certainly, the Senate’s call for mandatory pollution reduction measures is significant. That promise needs to be met quickly.

“The original Climate Stewardship Act remains the best legislative option offered to date for addressing the growing problem of global warming.”

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BACKGROUND: The U.S. Senate last night passed a “Sense of the Senate on Climate Change” resolution, sponsored by Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Arlen Specter (R-PA) and others, which found that greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere are causing unnatural levels of temperature rise which pose the risk of sea-level rise, increased flooding, and other climatic changes. The resolution calls on Congress to enact a comprehensive and mandatory program to reverse the growth of global warming pollution. The resolution, an amendment to the Energy Bill, was passed by a voice vote, after a motion to table (or kill) it failed by a vote of 43 to 54.