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Senator claims GOP follows Beck and Limbaugh, not science, on climate
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Thursday that strong global warming
legislation lacks 60 votes and claimed Republicans are paying attention
to conservative media pundits rather than climate science.
"It is absolutely incredible and very, very sad — and I say this not
from a political point of view — that a lot of very bright Republicans
no longer pay attention to science and are much more interested in the
rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck," he said.
The meeting comes as Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is trying to craft an energy package to be brought to the floor this summer.
Sanders said that with "virtually" no Republican support, every Democrat would have to support a climate plan.
"Do I think we have 60 votes to come up with strong global warming legislation? No," Sanders said. "I think it is a tragedy, but that's the way it is."
Environmentalists and Senate advocates of greenhouse gas limits are hoping to keep climate provisions in the mix for the Senate debate, but emissions caps face resistance from many Republicans and some centrist Democrats.
But Tom Udall (D-N.M.) said that writing off a strong climate bill is
premature. "We are still at the very early stage," he said en route to the caucus meeting. "It's the first caucus. ... We are moving in
the direction of getting all the senators to talk with each other."
Udall said a meeting between Reid and freshman and sophomore senators a
couple of days ago revealed significant support for climate provisions.
"[Reid] just put the question to all of us, do you want a price on
carbon in this bill? There was only one senator that said they couldn't
do it," Udall said.
