GOP Threatens Climate Change Bill, Jobs Creation over Immigration Reform

Washington, D.C. (Apr 25) – In a true to character move, Senator Lindsey Graham a member of the bipartisan group of senators working on a Climate Bill, and member of the party of “No” threatens to block action on the Climate Change Bill over his personal stance on immigration reform.

A bipartisan group of senators led by John Kerry (D-MA), tasked with tackling global warming had plans to release the bill this Monday placed on hold. The bill would have reduced the U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide pollution resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. The bill was expected to introduce new policies for pollution permits to cut pollution. Ten northeastern U.S. states and the European Union already have similar plans in place.

Senator Graham (C-SC), threaten to pullout and oppose the legislation if, the Democrats pushed for an overhaul of immigration reform prior to moving on to the environmental and energy legislation.

The immigration became a factor after Arizona’s governor signed one of the most controversial immigration laws ever implemented in the U.S. drawing criticism from President Obama. The bill walked a fine line between the powers of the state and federal government agencies handling immigration arrests and prosecutions. Under the Arizona law, state and local authorities have taken jurisdiction over such matters.

In a statement released by Senator Kerry, he expressed that this setback would not prevent him from pressing forward with much needed legislation aimed at drastically reducing greenhouse gases while providing billions in incentives to industries to implement, “I remain deeply committed to this effort which I have worked on for more than 20 years. We have no choice but to act this year. The American people deserve better than for the Senate to defer this debate or settle for an energy-only bill that won’t get the job done.’’

A key measure of the bill would provide clean energy incentives worth $2 billion annually to the coal industry while providing tax credits to the nuclear industry. A separate measure of the bill was to provide “umbrella” coverage regarding emissions standards therefore, having only one set of rules the industry must comply with instead of dealing with emissions standards on a state-by-state basis.

In addition, the bill is expected to produce close to 2 million jobs n the clean energy field. The bill was expanded to give republicans that enjoy some of their major political support from the worst polluters in the industry coal, and oil until 2016 to comply. A necessary measure to win over republican party support.

The preamble to S.1733 reads, “To create clean energy jobs, promote energy independence, reduce global warming pollution, and transition to a clean energy economy,” and addresses: Greenhouse Gas Reduction, Research, Transition, and Adaption of the program as well as jobs creation.

It is time for not only Climate Change but also, Political Change in Washington. This is ridiculous and proves once again that while the GOP states they want to work for change in America is nothing more than a lie as, they will only support their style of change in America.

Posted by rgrone on April 25, 2010. Filed under economy,Environment,Green Technologies,Moderate,News,Politics,Research,Science and Tech,US Politics,WorldNewsVine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.