Energy & Environment

The administration says it's moving as quickly as resources allow to issue permits, but industry says production is being hampered.

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Evidence from liberals supporting climate change is often based on "ridiculous pseudo-science garbage," Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) charged Friday.

Vitter openly mocked an assertion by his Senate colleague Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who said she can feel a change in climate as manifested by increased turbulence in her plane flights.

"Unfortunately, that's sort of the ridiculous pseudo-science garbage that's so common on the left on this issue," Vitter said in an interview with a conservative news radio syndicate. "The real truth is getting out there, and I think citizens are really starting to push back."

"I think there is beginning to be a serious reconsideration of the science of this," Vitter added, saying that supposed growing skepticism of climate change was helping fuel Republican opposition to the cap-and-trade bill before Congress.

Vitter insisted that the month of September, during which the Senate will reconvene after its recess, would be a "critical period" for the advancement of the bill.

The conservative Louisianan expected the cap-and-trade bill would easily pass out of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in September, but face a much more difficult time on the Senate floor.

The climate change bill is one of President Obama and congressional Democrats' top legislative priorities this year. The House passed a preliminary version of the cap-and-trade bill by a narrow margin in late June.

Vitter was confident senators would be able to block a vote on the legislation, though.

"I am very hopeful that we can block draconian legislation on the Senate floor, and that we can prevent it from getting 60 votes," he said. "I think there are several Democrats from the upper Plains states, from the Midwest, also my colleague Mary Landrieu from Louisiana, who are going to have a very difficult time supporting this."

Enacting climate change and healthcare legislation could threaten America's status as the predominant military leader in the world, one Republican congressman asserted Wednesday.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told a conservative news radio show that the debate over healthcare and cap-and-trade bills would implicate the national security of the U.S.

"The thing that scares me is, the way the world operates, the economic leader is the military leader," Jordan said. "Right now, that's one country: The United States. And the world is a safer and better place because of that fact."

Jordan explained that he fears those two pieces of legislation, signature issues for President Obama and congressional Democrats, would harm the economy to an extent that it would take the nation's military standing down a notch.

"If in the future, some other country steps and assumes that role because we've enacted policies that make it tough for us to compete, make it tough for us to remain the top economy -- that's a dangerous concept out there," he said. "And that's why this is so important. It has bigger implications than just our pocketbook and our economy; it has national security implications."

If the bills pass, Jordan said he feared they would "diminish the potential for America to continue to be the greatest country in the world."

Listen to the entire interview here.

Ten Democratic senators urged President Obama today to support stronger protections for U.S. manufacturing in major climate legislation.

In a letter to Obama, the senators asked for a strong "border adjustment mechanism" to help U.S. industries adjustment to higher energy costs. Such a "mechanism" might include a tax or tariff against foreign manufacturers whose costs aren't affected by the legislation.

"Any climate change legislation must prevent the export of jobs and related greenhouse gas emissions to countries that fail to take actions to combat the threat of global warming comparable to those taken by the United States," the senators write.

"It is essential that climate change legislation include a border mechanism, sufficient allowances to energy intensive industries and other effective measures that encourage international agreements and maintain a level playing field for American manufacturers."

U.S. trading partners have warned that a "border tax" might trigger retaliatory tariffs.

The letter's signatories hail mostly from midwest and/or industrial states: Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, etc.

The climate bill narrowly passed the House but has yet to come up for a vote in the Senate.

The signatories include: Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich), Russell D. Feingold (D-Wisc.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), Robert P. Casey (D-Pa.), Robert C. Byrd (D-W.V.), Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.V), and Al Franken (D-Minn).

Read the full letter after the jump.

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Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) decided to use the August recess to stir up a little trouble in his homestate Congressional delegation.

Snyder was the only member of Congress from Arksansas to vote in favor of the American Clean Energy and Security Act in the House. So while all four lawmakers were home for recess, Snyder proposed they face off for a two-hour, no holds barred debate over the climate bill.

Thus far, he doesn't have any takers.

"My good friends couldn't find the time," Snyder told NWANews.com. "Apparently, they're afraid of me."

But Snyder's taunting didn't end there. He offered to give each participant a "phone a friend" lifeline during the debate, and even mockingly suggested some, er, supportive devices.

"If I brought my little boy's floaties down to the debate, if that would make them more comfortable, we could do that," Snyder quipped.

Snyder's Arkansas colleagues do not seem amused by his antics.

"I really don't care," Rep. John Boozman (R-Ark.) told NWANews.com.

Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) said there was "no instructive purpose in rehashing an issue where I have a fundamental difference with my fellow member."

Rep. Marion Berry (D-Ark.) said Snyder should have contacted him personally instead of making the proposal through a TV station.

"Normally, if one member wants another member to do something, he'll personally ask him," Berry said.

Looks like it's going to be a lonely debate for Snyder.

The Senate lacks the votes to pass "cap and trade" climate change legislation as a standalone bill or as an amendment to an energy bill after recess, Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) claimed Friday.

"Right now, my reading is that there are not the votes in the Senate to pass a cap and trade bill," Bennett said in a conference call with Utah reporters.

Bennett asserted that Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.) hoped deadline to pass a preliminary climate change bill by this fall could "easily slip" until the winter.

Bennett credited Boxer's concerns over the vote tally for the delay in the bill.

"I think that's why Sen. Boxer decided to delay introducing her bill -- because she wanted more time to lobby for more support," he said.

He also said the cap and trade bill could be attached to energy legislation after recess.

"There are some people who are saying we should put a cap and trade amendment on the energy bill, and thereby have the cap and trade debate in that context," he explained.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) pledged to launch an immediate investigation Friday following the revelation that some groups opposed to climate change legislation forged letters by minority groups to mischaracterize those groups' stances.

"This fraud on Congress shows that some opponents of clean energy have resorted to forgery and theft to block progress," said Markey, the chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and principal author of "cap-and-trade" legislation in the House.

The Charlottesville Daily Progress reported Friday that freshman Rep. Tom Perriello's (D-Va.) office had received letters purportedly from Creciendo Juntos, a Hispanic-advocacy nonprofit group, opposing the controversial climate change bill, as well as the NAACP.

The groups decried the letters as forgeries, and said the letters mischaracterized their positions.

Markey said that his committee would immediately begin an investigation of the forgeries, and warned other lawmakers to be on the lookout for false letters.

"I encourage all Members of Congress to be on the lookout for other suspicious and illegal materials," he said.

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) cast doubt Tuesday on the Democratic agenda to pass a climate change bill, taking a mild swipe at rival Barack Obama's administration for failing to lead on the issue.

Asked whether the Senate could pass climate change and health care reform this fall, McCain said the White House still hasn't produced a bill and suggested Obama still has yet to reach out to Republicans on the issue.

"It depends on whether the administration has a proposal. That's generally the way we work, but obviously that's not been the case here," McCain said. "It also depends on whether there's a tangible desire for bipartisanship and whether the president decides to lead. I think that some of us have a legitimate desire to say, 'Well, what is your proposal?' to the president."

--J. Taylor Rushing

The White House has dispatched cabinet members to make the case for the controversial climate bill making its way through the Senate.

Today, four cabinet members penned op-eds for large, regional newspapers promoting the climate bill, which barely passed the House a few weeks back.

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu published a column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch arguing that the government must incentivize new sources of energy.

With the right incentives, the private sector will first seek out the lowest-hanging fruit. The quickest and easiest way to reduce our carbon emissions is to make our appliances, cars, homes and other buildings more efficient. In fact, energy efficiency is not just low-hanging fruit; it is fruit that is lying on the ground. And energy efficiency means money back in your pocket because you pay less on your energy bills.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson took to the pages of the Philadelphia Inquirer, promoting the pollution-reduction benefits of the climate bill.

"Clean energy can also cut dangerous pollution in our communities. It can bring relief to the millions of American children with asthma and cut smog levels that double the risk of premature births," Jackson wrote. "It can reduce the prevalence of cancer and other diseases linked to pollution from burning fossil fuels. That will improve overall health and lower the amount we spend on health care each year - another goal we all can support.

Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, writing in his home-state's major paper, the Denver Post, talked up the threat of climate change to land owners:

We are also seeing the dangerous consequences of climate change: longer and hotter fire seasons, reduced snow packs, rising sea levels and declines of wildlife. Farmers, ranchers, municipalities, and other water users in Colorado and across the West are facing the possibility of a grim future in which there is less water to go around.

But with comprehensive clean energy legislation from Congress, sound policies and wise management of our nation's lands and oceans, we can change the equation.

Finally, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, writing in the Des Moines Register:

This issue is too important for agriculture and forestry to sit on the sidelines. The opportunities it offers farmers and ranchers through a carbon market and a new energy economy are too promising to delay. Because, when we address climate change, we will not only fend off a looming climate crisis, but we will revitalize rural America.

The cap-and-trade climate bill before Congress is the "worst piece of legislation" in recent years, one centrist Democratic lawmaker said Monday.

"The cap and trade bill is really the worst piece of legislation I've seen since I've been there," Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) told the Tulsa Metro Chamber of Commerce. "It raises energy prices on businesses, raises electric bills on families, and it even raises gasoline prices in the middle of a recession. And, it makes America less competitive in the global economy."

Boren was one of 44 House Democrats to vote against the American Clean Energy and Security Act, crafted by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), in a razor-thin vote last month.

Now, Boren's vote is being courted in a bid to pass a preliminary healthcare reform package in the House. Some centrist Democrats have defected from party leadership in committee votes on the healthcare legislation, citing concerns over provisions that would impose a surtax on wealthy Americans and would create a public (or "government-run") insurance option for consumers.

Boren signaled that it may be tough for Democratic leaders to count on his vote for the health bill, their other signature piece of legislation aside the climate change bill.

"We have to be very careful," he said, as reported by the Oklahoman. "The current health insurance plan that's been released, in my opinion, will only exacerbate the problem."