Earth Equity News

Four Dem Senators Say Cap-and-Trade Should be Ditched. By Daniel Whitten and Simon Lomax, BloombergNews, August 14, 2009. "The U.S. Senate should abandon efforts to pass legislation curbing greenhouse-gas emissions this year and concentrate on a narrower bill to require use of renewable energy, four Democratic lawmakers say. 'The problem of doing both of them together is that it becomes too big of a lift,' Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas said in an interview last week. 'I see the cap-and-trade being a real problem'... Ben Nelson of Nebraska and North Dakota Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan joined Lincoln in suggesting that the climate measure be put off. 'We should separate the energy bill from the climate bill,' Conrad told reporters this month... Climate legislation would require 60 votes in the Senate. Most Republicans have said they oppose the cap-and-trade measure, and at least 15 of the Senate's 60-member Democratic majority have said the House-passed version would hurt the economy and needs to be revamped to win their support."