Baltimore—Environment Maryland today applauded Senators Mikulski
and Cardin 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 Senate leadership deserves
a lot of credit for moving a global warming bill as far as they could this year,”
said Environment Maryland State Director Brad Heavner. “Getting to work on clean energy solutions as
soon as possible is key, and we have a lot of work to do to overcome the delay
tactics of the fossil fuel lobby and their friends in Congress. We need to go from getting blocked from full
consideration of the bill to passing the bill by next year.”
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 Maryland,
the United
States can
transition to a clean energy economy by making a commitment to the emission
reductions science tells us are necessary, making polluters pay for their
pollution, and aggressively promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy
infrastructure.
“The solutions exist today that
can get us much of the way there. And
states across the country are already making these solutions a reality,” said Heavner.
“Unfortunately, the Senate Republican leadership,
backed by coal and oil companies 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 Heavner.
