Bad news for supporters of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill as they frantically round up supporters for today's vote: Greenpeace is urging a 'no' vote.
Unlike conservative opponents of the bill, however, Greenpeace thinks the legislation is too friendly to polluters.
"Since the Waxman-Markey bill left the Energy and Commerce committee, yet another fleet of industry lobbysists has weakened the bill even more, and further widened the gap between what Waxman-Markey does and what science demands," Greenpeace USA Deputy Campaigns Director Carroll Muffett said in a statement last night. "As a result, Greenpeace opposes this bill in its current form. We are calling upon Congress to vote against this bill unless substantial measures are taken to strengthen it."
(Read the full statement after the jump.)
It's unclear how important Greenpeace's opposition will be, however. Democratic vote-counters are most nervous about defection from moderates, not liberals.
Nevertheless, Greenpeace's assertion that supporters "chooses politics over science" will give a helpful talking point to GOP opponents. (Republicans will mean something very different by that than Greenpeace, however.)
Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) predicted on Thursday evening that the House climate change bill will attract 230 votes.
Butterfield said, "It is very close, but I think right now we are right up there at the 218 count. We were unsure earlier in the day. The president has been on the phone with several of our caucus members and the Speaker and the whip have been here to talk with members and I have discerned some movement in the last two hours."
He added, "I am not announcing that we are at 218 [votes], but we are generally in that area. This morning it was a little bit less than that. I am confident that we are where we need to be. I think overnight that we will pick up another 10. I predict that it will pass [with] 230 [votes]. Write it down. I'll see you after the vote."
Asked if a Thursday night social event at the White House that will be attended by House lawmakers will be helpful, Butterfield responded, "Yes."
"[President Obama] has a lot riding on this. The world has a lot riding on this," Butterfield said.
The bill is scheduled to hit the House floor on Friday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) canceled her planned appearance with former Vice President Al Gore Thursday so the Nobel laureate could work the phones ahead of the impending vote on landmark climate change legislation.
Pelosi had been scheduled to appear alongside Gore at a press availability after a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus this afternoon, but a source in the Speaker's office said Pelosi thought it would be more effective to have Gore on the phone calling lawmakers one-on-one.
Pelosi surprisingly scheduled the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) bill for a vote this week, exuding confidence that the landmark climate change bill would receive enough support to make its way through the House.
Republicans have derided the bill, also known as "Waxman-Markey" for its authors, as amounting to a de facto tax on energy consumption.
Gore is a former Democratic presidential candidate in 2000 whose environmental activism had earned him a Nobel Peace Prize and an Academy Award.
Pelosi is "feeling good" about the vote, a source said.
It'll be "lights out" for consumers if the climate change bill before Congress is allowed to become law, the Republican National Committee (RNC) warned Monday.
In a PR blitz to kick off the week, the RNC released a web video and sent props to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, warning them to not "tax our lights out" by way of passing the Waxman-Markey bill.
The web video shows several people using appliances around their homes before the power goes out, and they have to light up a candle, after which they facetiously "thank" President Obama.
"Don't let Democrats tax your lights out," a narrator says. "tTell them NO to Cap and Trade."
Additionally, the RNC sent a candle to House members this morning with a note attached.
"If Democrats pass 'Cap and Tax,' this is all the energy American families and businesses will be able to afford," the note says. "Don't tax our lights out!"
"The so-called 'cap and trade' plan proposed by President Obama and Congressional Democrats is nothing but a multi-billion dollar national energy tax on every American family, small business and family farm," RNC Chairman Michael Steele said in a statement.
The new salvo in the debate over Waxman-Markey comes as Congress reaches its deadline to finish the self-imposed deadline to pass the climate change overhaul in the House.
The bill, a top priority for the Obama administration and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), has hit snags from GOP opposition, and some opposition from centrist Democrats -- especially those on the House Agriculture Committee.
Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said today that cap and trade lacks the votes to pass Congress this session.
"The votes just haven't been there, and I'm not sure they are now," Lugar told reporters, adding that cap and trade was "a tough sell to people who are in a recession and whose light bills are going up."
Lugar said there are similar internal disagreements in other countries, including China. Combined, the U.S. and China produce the most pollution in the world.
"Clearly, this is one world," he said. "The atmosphere is filled, already, with CO2 from emissions from our two countries.
"Both countries have a lot of coal, and we have many industries that have been dependent upon that coal and feel they will be hurt competitively."
Lugar has been a moderate on climate change issues, but his homestate of Indiana relies heavily on coal, an emissions heavy source of energy that would become much more expensive under cap-and-trade regulation.
Democratic leaders (and President Obama) hope to pass Waxman-Markey out of the House in time for the UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen this December.
Republican leaders don't even believe that global warming is real, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), one of the principal authors of the climate change bill before the House said Monday.
Markey maligned a GOP alternative to his bill with Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) as only doubling down on harmful environmental practices.
"The Republicans are now on the attack. It begins with their leaders not believing that global warming is real," Markey said during a conference call sponsored by the global warming group 1Sky.
Markey mocked the GOP alternative, as well, likening it to a smoker who increases their consumption of cigarettes in light of harmful health effects.
"They have an alternative plan!" he said. "It's almost as though they're saying not only is there no problem -- we're going from one pack a day to two packs a day."
Waxman, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said that the House should seize the opportunity to pass climate change legislation, which he said only really comes once every 15 years or so.
"If I could go back to the first years of Jimmy Carter -- if I could go back to the first two years of Bill Clinton, I would do things differently," Waxman said, lamenting missed opportunities where Democratic Congresses and White Houses did not pass climate change regulations.
For his part, Markey also blamed the Bush administration's work on global warming for spurring the current legislation, too.
"For the preceding 8 years, we had an administration that only had aspirational goals in dealing with this issue," he said. "Unfortunately, we had an administration...they still had done nothing on the day they walked out of the White House."
A tax on bovine emissions could hurt American farmers and consumers, House Select Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee Ranking Member James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) warned Tuesday.
Sensenbrenner condemned a proposed tax from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on cattle and some pigs on the basis of those animals' methane emissions, which contribute in part to global climate change.
"This cow fart tax shows how outrageous the whole global warming and climate change debate is," Sensenbrenner said during an appearance on Fox News. "It might be more civilized. The EPA calls it digestive gases. We all call those farts."
The Wisconsin lawmaker, who leads Republicans on the committee overseeing the effects of global warming, said the taxes would be passed on to consumers who buy animal products.
"Well, the average Joe, when he goes to the supermarket and buys any kind of dairy product or beef or pork is going to end up paying through the nose to pay for the cow fart tax," Sensenbrenner said.
He said the issue was "no laughing matter," and blamed a Supreme Court decision giving the EPA wide leverage for regulate greenhouse gases and emissions for leading to the current situtation.
"Now, you know, I wonder if the EPA is going to say you can get an exemption from this tax if you put a catalytic converter on each end of the cow," he said. "I wonder what the Humane Society would say about that."
"This is not feeling like a career high for me," Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly deadpanned during the interview.
Nancy Pelosi will trek to Minnesota tomorrow to hold a high dollar fundraiser for Reps. Ketih Ellison (D-Minn.) and Tim Walz (D). But while she's in the state, she might want to sit down with another Minnesota Democrat who's threatening to derail Pelosi's highest legislative priority.
Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, says he has corralled 45 Democratic votes against the bill if significant changes aren't made. His committee will get a chance to markup the legislation in coming weeks but lacks the jurisdiction to modify many of the most contentious oprtions of the bill.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is seizing on Peterson's doubts about the bill the blast Walz and Ellison.
"It's bad enough that Tim Walz and Keith Ellison continue to vote in lockstep with Nancy Pelosi's reckless agenda, but it's even worse that they are accepting her campaign cash while she openly pushes a bill that will raise energy costs and devastate Minnesota communities and farms,' said Ken Spain, NRCC Communications Director.
Pelosi has given Peterson (as well as Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel) until June 19 to modify the legislation or risk losing the chance altogether.
Liberal activists will gather this week at Washington, D.C.'s Omni Shoreham hotel this week for a conference to organize support for key Obama administration initiatives.
The "America's Future Now" conference (formerly the "Take Back America" conference) will play host to administration members, lawmakers, union leaders, and others to discuss healthcare reform, energy and environmental legislation, and the economic recovery -- among other issues.
Leaders of groups will join forces Monday to also announce their plans to push for the healthcare reform package in Congress. There will also be a straw poll for the first time to see where participants stand on a variety of issues.
The conference is organized by Campaign for America's Future.
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