Trenton— Environment New
Jersey today applauded Senators Bob Menendez and Frank Lautenberg for voting to
advance the Climate Security Act (S. 3036), the most comprehensive global
warming legislation ever considered by the full Senate. Unfortunately, by a vote of 48-36, the Senate
fell short of the 60-vote threshold needed to move forward with the bill,
causing consideration of the bill to end without any substantive votes on the
measure. An additional six senators, who
missed the vote, submitted statements indicating that they would have voted to
move forward had they been present.
“The inconvenient truth is
that the U.S. Senate just showed it was too captive to polluters to
confront global warming. This
makes the cowardly lion seem courageous,” said Doug O’Malley, Environment
New Jersey’s field director. “Faced with an urgent problem that demands
action, the Senate passed the buck despite the efforts of New Jersey’s delegation. We applaud Senators Menendez and
Lautenberg for fighting to advance global warming legislation.”
Scientists warn that if we
don’t act quickly and boldly to reduce our emissions of global warming
pollution, the United States and the world risk devastating damage to our
environment, economy, and way of life.
According to Environment New
Jersey, the United
States
must commit to the emission reductions science tells us are necessary, make
polluters pay for their pollution, and aggressively promote the energy
efficiency and renewable energy infrastructure that will enable us to transition
to a clean energy economy.
“The solutions exist today
that can get us much of the way there.
And states across the country – like New Jersey – are already making these solutions a reality,” said
O’Malley.
“Unfortunately, the Senate
Republican leadership, backed by Big Oil and coal and a presidential veto
threat, made clear this week that they are intent on blocking action on global
warming. At every turn, they used
procedural maneuvers to obstruct consideration of the bill,” said O’Malley.
“Next time around, the
polluters and their allies in Congress won’t get off so easy. In the weeks and months ahead, we’ll educate
and mobilize the American public on the urgent need for action to stop the
worst effects of global warming and the many opportunities inherent in a
massive transition to a clean energy economy, helping to pave the way for
stronger legislation next year that will get the job done,” concluded O’Malley.
####
Environment New Jersey is a
non-profit citizen advocacy group based out of Trenton and
represents over 20,000 citizen members across the state.
