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Barbara Boxer is desperate for having Global Warming legislation under her belt.  Can there be a better explanation for her strong championing of the fatally-flawed Lieberman-Warner Climate (in) Security Act? (For a great discussion of CISA’s flaws, see this comment to a post by Environmental Defense at Grist defending CISA.)  A quick review:

• CISA would give 40% of pollution permits (between $500 to >$1000 billion in value) to serial polluters. This will make dealing with climate change more expensive for society while rewarding bad actors for their past bad behavior and lowering their incentives to change future behavior.
• CISA’s targets are inadequate according to the science.
• CISA has paths via an appointed board for weakening targets but not the potential for that same board to strengthen targets, if that is what is required.
• CISA heavily subsidizes carbon capture & sequestration (CCS), which is little more than science experiment at this time and uncertain whether it will make sense, rather than being more balanced in potential remedial paths into the future.
• And, so on …

According to E&E (behind firewall), Barbara Boxer has begun behind-the-scenes lobbying to whip up enough votes to get L-W through the Senate.  And, they are pushing hard on Republican “moderates”.

Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) said Boxer approached him on the House floor before Bush’s nationally televised speech on Monday. Asked if he remained undecided, Martinez replied, “I still am. I’ve been talking to Senator Boxer and I’m going to be studying it more carefully.” 

with John Warner (R-VA) noting:

“Democrats are very solid on this. I think the Republicans, particular the ones running for re-election, are going to recognize they can’t go back home and say in an empty message we haven’t done anything about global warming.” 

Yes, let us work hard to get something, anything, passed before the election rather than passing good legislation.

Now, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) commented that Lieberman-Warner might fail like immigration legislation,

“It’s so big, so complex and has so many parts, that it may fall of its own weight.”

We can only hope.

To take someone else’s words, when it comes to Lieberman-Warner, “Thank God for Friends of the Earth” and their voicing reason on CISA.