Lieberman-McCain Bill Meets a Welcome Defeat

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Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273

Washington, D.C., October 30, 2003—The Competitive Enterprise Institute congratulates the U.S. Senate for voting down a bill sponsored by Senators Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and John McCain (R-AZ) that would have created mandatory restrictions on emissions of carbon dioxide and created a mechanism for stricter limits in the style of the Kyoto Protocol climate treaty.

“While the failure of the cap-and-trade approach in the Senate today comes as little surprise, it is still welcome news,” said Myron Ebell, Director of Global Warming Policy at CEI.  “Of course, the number of votes it did receive was inflated because the sponsors did everything they could to cut special deals to get more votes.”

By raising the cost of energy through suppression of carbon dioxide, a system of mandatory restrictions would amount to a stealth tax on all Americans.  Despite this cost, any system set up in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />United States would have no virtually no impact on global CO2 levels because of massive increases expected from developing countries which have already made clear they have no intention of limiting their own emissions.  Moreover, the scientific assumptions on which such a system would be based have grown increasingly weak, with many scientists questioning whether emissions limits would have any detectable effect on the climate whatsoever.   

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government.  For more information about CEI, please visit our website at www.cei.org.