Global Warming In the News

A proposal that would have required cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions to combat global warming is probably dead this year, although New Jersey's two senators voted to keep the issue alive.

The Senate on Friday failed to end a GOP filibuster of climate-change legislation.

New Jersey's Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, both Democrats, voted to end the filibuster. Menendez was gearing up to offer proposals to strengthen the bill.

The 48-36 vote fell far short of the 60 needed to move the bill to the Senate floor, essentially killing it for this year.

Menendez said the bill, while imperfect, was a key step forward.

"There are a number of senators who are hoping for future legislation that goes further in reducing emissions, supporting renewable energy and helping developing nations deal with climate change," he said. "But every major movement starts with a first step."

Doug O'Malley of Environment New Jersey accused Republican leaders of caving to the oil and coal lobbies.

Critics, however, expressed relief at the bill's apparent demise this year.

Sen. James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican and a skeptic of global warming, said the bill would have raised taxes, expanded government and caused "substantial economic harm for no climate gain."

The Climate Security Act was the first major global warming legislation to pass through the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The bill faced an uphill battle in the Senate, where Democrats hold a narrow majority.

President Bush had threatened to veto it.

Following Friday's vote, Democratic leaders and bill supporters vowed to bring up the issue again when a new president and Congress take over next year. Both presidential candidates, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., said they would have voted to end the filibuster had they been in Washington on Friday.

The bill, co-authored by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and John Warner, R-Va., calls for a reduction in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions by more than 70 percent by 2050.

It also would provide incentives for power plants, factories and oil refineries to reduce emissions. The measure would establish a program to give credits to companies that reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Those companies could sell their credits to help others having a hard time meeting the goal.

Reach Raju Chebium at rchebium@gns.gannett.com.