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Bingaman could make a difference on climate bill
By New Mexico REP Chapter President Scott MacCurdy, published in the Albuquerque Journal on June 4, 2008

The Senate is as close as it's ever been to passing legislation to cap greenhouse gas emissions.

It might just succeed, if only Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, would stop trying to derail or weaken a good bipartisan climate bill that will likely be voted on this week.

America's Climate Security Act, sponsored by Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., would adopt a “cap-and-trade” system employing market forces to drive down greenhouse gas emissions 70 percent by 2050.

Senate passage of this legislation would be a significant step towards addressing climate change.

Even if President Bush vetoes it, Senate passage would set the table in 2009 for the next president to sign into law a similar bill. Both presumptive nominees for president support strong cap-and-trade climate legislation.

Bingaman has proposed a much less ambitious climate bill and appears to be trying to generate hand-wringing about the economic costs of the Warner-Lieberman bill. Last week, Bingaman, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, held a hearing on the economic costs of addressing climate change, which utterly ignored the economic costs of failing to address it.

Bingaman should be using his position of leadership to help solve the climate change problem, not to fret over every challenge and discourage the bold action necessary.

The Senate has come as close as it has to passing climate legislation because of bold leadership.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, spent a great deal of political capital over the past seven years, often at great political risk to himself, calling for action, holding hearings, writing bills, and even taking his colleagues to the ends of the earth to educate them about the impacts of climate change.

Sens. Warner and Lieberman picked up the ball by crafting America 's Climate Security Act, which is built on the foundation laid by McCain. The legislation is a carefully balanced package of science, standards, research, incentives and checkpoints.

Negotiating the climate bill's final language is as delicate as cutting a diamond, but Bingaman, perhaps miffed that his own, weaker climate bill isn't moving forward, seems intent on undermining the Warner-Lieberman proposal.

McCain isn't hand-wringing. He is pledging action and talking about how Americans can solve any problem. As McCain said earlier this month, “We stand warned by serious and credible scientists across the world that time is short and the dangers are great. The most relevant question now is whether our own government is equal to the challenge."

Bingaman should put his political agendas aside and focus on the big picture. It is urgently necessary for America to pass effective climate legislation—to provide certainty for America 's businesses, goose the market for cleaner energy technologies, and to position our nation to lead what must be a global transition to a post-carbon economy."ff

For our senators, this bill presents a real test, one that McCain framed well: “Like other environmental challenges—only more so—global warming presents a test of foresight, of political courage, and of the unselfish concern that one generation owes to the next.”

New Mexicans should watch and see if it is a test that Bingaman can pass.