Jim Inhofe: “Senator Baucus will have an amendment up. I think it is interesting. I refer to these three amendments as cover…”

“Senator Baucus will have an amendment up. I think it is interesting. I refer to these three amendments as cover amendments. In other words, there are a lot of Democrats who don't want to vote to take away the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gases, so they have offered other amendments. The Baucus amendment is one that is going to exempt certain small people, some small farmers and all that. But that doesn't exempt them from having their electricity rates escalate. The American Farm Bureau says: We don't want any of the cover votes. We don't want the Baucus bill. We don't want Stabenow, and we don't want Rockefeller. Stabenow would also have a delay in certain parts of the regulation. The Rockefeller vote, which is going to be the third vote, is one that would have a 2-year delay. In other words, it says we can go ahead and do the regulation, but we will kind of put it off for 2 years. The real vote and the one that is critical--and if there is anyone out there who doesn't want to go home and say: I am responsible for passing the largest tax increase in the history of America by defeating the Inhofe-McConnell amendment, then go ahead and vote that way. That is going to be a serious problem--not for me but for the Senators who might vote the wrong way. The McConnell-Inhofe amendment will be the fourth vote. This is the critical one. The rest are cover votes. With that, I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.”