Max Baucus: “President, I wish to explain my climate change votes. This is an important debate, and I appreciate the efforts of my…”

“President, I wish to explain my climate change votes. This is an important debate, and I appreciate the efforts of my colleagues to contribute substantively to our understanding of the issue and to offer solutions. First, let me be clear that although I voted for Senator Hagel's amendment relating to the promotion of climate change technology at home and abroad, I do not think that amendment goes far enough to address the issue of rising greenhouse gas emissions. At the very least, I would like to see more aggressive timetables and proposals for Federal action than are contained in Senator Hagel's amendment. At the same time, I am still not comfortable supporting the approach of Senator Lieberman and Senator McCain. I admire their hard work and dedication in advocating for immediate action to control U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases. They have helped to educate their colleagues, and have kept the issue on the front-burner in the Senate and made it impossible for us to ignore. And, as they have so often pointed out, the evidence that manmade greenhouse gas emissions are impacting our climate system is growing every year. However, I am still not ready to support the mandatory cap and trade called for in their amendment that would freeze U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases at 2000 levels in 2010. I still have questions about the costs this proposal would impose on our economy, and in particular on my state that has the largest coal reserves in the lower 48.…”