It was Sen Bernie Sanders who first advanced the idea of such an amendment to the Keystone XL Bill, and who promised that, if it didn’t come out of committee, then he would bring it up on the floor. As it turns out, the first of a number of amendments addressing climate change was introduced by Rhode Island Democrat, Sen Sheldon Whitehouse, with Sen Bernie Sanders as first co-sponsor. Its purpose was expressed in a brief, unambiguous 16 words:
To express the sense of the Senate that climate change is real and not a hoax.
The words “real and not a hoax” are a direct challenge to Republicans, especially newly-appointed chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen Inhofe who published
The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future. But in the weirdest attempt as spin-politicking we’ve seen lately, Sen Inhofe actually asked to be a co-sponsor on the amendment. He doubled down on the weird by sending put
this tweet:
Senators - join me in voting YES on Whitehouse's amdmnt saying climate change is a hoax, bc it is. I'll address my vote in floor speech soon
Apparently Sen Inhofe has difficulty distinguishing the difference in meaning between “climate change is a hoax” (his tweet) and “climate change is real and not a hoax” (the amendment he co-sponsored and voted for). Whatever led Inhofe down that dim mental alleyway, he came up with the following in his floor speech:
Climate is changing and climate has always changed and always will. There is archaeological evidence of that, there is biblical evidence of that, there is historical evidence of that. It will always change. The hopes is that there are some people who are so arrogant to think they are so powerful they can change climate. Man can’t change climate.
Apparently this was enough to persuade his party to support the amendment overwhelmingly – all but one Republican joined with every Democrat in passing the amendment 98 to 1. The only no vote came from Sen Roger Wicker (Mississippi), the incoming chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the only one not persuaded by Inhofe's flim-flam.
Republican apologists immediately swung into action claiming that, against all odds and evidence, Inhofe was actually being clever. The Washington Post gave Inhofe credit as the “primary inspiration for the amendment” and gushingly reported: “Inhofe -- did we detect a twinkle in his eye?” followed by:
There was a hoax: the idea that man was responsible. Such a position was "arrogant," in his [Inhofe’s] formulation, the idea that people could affect the mechanisms that controlled the globe. With that distinction drawn -- the climate changes, and that change isn't a hoax, even if the role of humans is -- the vote was held.
Of course no Republican defense would be complete without an attempted mauling of the Democrats:
There's no question that a vote against a flat statement that climate change is real could have been problematic for candidates down the road -- especially for those various Republican senators quietly preparing for the big election in 2016. With Inhofe's re-framing the question, the Democrats, trying to engineer a gotcha moment, ended up empty-handed on the vote, with neither the satisfaction of nailing down opposition to scientific consensus and without a point of leverage for future discussions of addressing the warming planet.
But what
Washington Post’s gushing Philip Bump failed to note is that it the person who writes and proposes the amendment who has the distinction of framing its meaning and Sen Whitehouse
certainly did that:
I’m hoping that after many years of darkness and blockade that this can be a first little vote beam of light through the wall that will allow us to at least start having an honest conversation about what carbon pollution is doing to our climate and to our oceans. This is a matter of vital consequence to my home state … and to many of yours as well.
A follow-up amendment from Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) stated, “climate change is real and human activity significantly contributes to climate change” was blocked in a 50-49 vote, short of the 60 that was needed for approval. Some Republicans who voted “no” on Schatz’s amendment claimed that their rejection rested on the single word “significantly”. Among them was Sen Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) who said the inclusion of “significantly” was “sufficient to merit a ‘no’ vote.”
However, five Republicans did vote for Schatz’s amendment: Senators Susan Collins (Maine), Lamar Alexander (Tenn), Lindsey Graham (SC), Mark Kirk (Ill) and Kelly Ayotte (NH). The final three in that list are significant: Kirk and Ayotte are up for reelection in 2016 and Graham is floating the idea of a run at the presidency.
There was one further vote on climate change. As The Hill reported:
In an attempt to provide political cover for Republicans, Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) put forward an alternative that expressed the sense of the Senate that the Keystone oil pipeline would not significantly impact the environment or contribute to global emissions. The provision included a line stating that humans contribute to climate change but without the word “significantly.”
Fifteen Republicans voted for that amendment, including Paul, making him the only 2016 contender to go on record as saying that human beings contribute to climate change.
Bernie Sanders was encouraged by the votes, calling it “a step forward” for Republicans.
I think what is exciting is that today we saw for the first time — a number, a minority — but some Republicans going onboard and saying that climate change is real and it’s caused by human activity. And I suspect that you are going to see in the months to come, more and more Republicans forced to acknowledge that reality.
Senator Sanders’ promised amendment will come up for a vote today, January 22nd. It goes much further than Whitehouse’s amendment in that it definitively states that climate change is “already causing severe problems all over the world, we have a window of opportunity and we have to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency.”
Regardless of how Sen Sanders’ amendment fares, Senators Whitehouse and Sanders now have all but one Senate Republican on record agreeing that climate change is real – and that includes every Republican Senator in pursuit of the presidency.
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