Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington is lead sponsor of a new climate change initiative.
Senate Democrats are seeking to send a message Tuesday as they unveil climate change legislation designed to coalesce the party around environmental issues in congressional and election cycles to come. Coral Davenport
reports:
The measure would establish as United States policy a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2 percent each year through 2025 — a cut even larger than the target set by the Obama administration.
The bill has no chance of passage in the Republican-controlled Congress, but Democrats say they believe that forcefully pushing for climate change policies could help them win control of the Senate in 2016. And if they regain the majority, they will move to enact climate legislation along the lines of the Cantwell bill.
“This is the kind of thing I’d embrace,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, who is expected to become the Senate Democratic leader after the current leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, retires next year. “A plan that looks something like this is going to be high on the next Congress’s agenda.”
Schumer anticipated that the package would "unite" most of the Democratic caucus. But it also lacks one major feature: a tax on carbon emissions that would make it more expensive to burn fossil fuels. The carbon tax proved to be a controversial piece of the "cap and trade" bill that failed early in Obama's presidency. It was especially unpopular in states with economies that rely on manufacturing.
But apparently that concession wasn't enough for Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, who have already indicated they won't sign on to the bill.