Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., talks with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., during a meeting of the Senate Climate Action Task Force prior to taking to the Senate Floor all night to urge action on climate change on Monday, March 10, 2014, in Washington. At left is Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
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By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senators have found plenty of common ground in an overnight debate about climate change that has been characterized by civil exchanges from lawmakers who hear plenty to like in each other's words. Could this really be happening in Washington?
Sure, when only one party shows up.
Democrats have been plowing through a dusk-to-dawn talkathon during which more than two dozen speakers have agreed with each other about the need for action on climate change. Naysayers - Republicans - largely stayed away.
'Climate change is real, it is caused by humans, and it is solvable,' said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.
In Schatz's view, the debate, such as it was, showed that a growing number of senators are committed to working together on climate change, even if no Republicans were among them. 'This is where intractable, longstanding issues get solved,' he said of the Senate.
Despite that bravado, Democratic leaders made it clear they have no plans to bring a climate bill to the Senate floor this year. Indeed, the issue is so politically charged that a host of Democrats who face tough re-election fights in the fall opted to skip the session. Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mark Begich of Alaska and Kay Hagan of North Carolina were among Democrats who stayed away.
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said Democrats who showed up were not convincing anyone with their stunt.
'They'll have an audience of themselves, so I hope they enjoy it,' Inhofe said about an hour into the marathon, planned to last for nearly 15 hours. Inhofe's speech marked the only time Republicans engaged in the debate. Two other GOP senators, Alabama's Jeff Sessions and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, took to the Senate floor earlier Monday to denounce Democrats before the overnight session began.
Leading off, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called climate change 'a question of our own survival' and said the United States and other countries have a responsibility to act 'before it is too late.'
House Democrats pushed through a bill to limit greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming in 2009, then lost their majority the following election. A climate bill led by then-Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry collapsed in 2010 without a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said the climate debate, which had its own Twitter hashtag, #Up4Climate, had drawn interest from around the nation and the world. Democrats received two separate petitions urging them to act, with a total of about 100,000 signatures, Boxer said.
'The American people are listening,' Boxer said. 'They care.' She added that the event should 'wake up Congress to the dangers of climate change.'
Boxer and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., lead the recently launched Senate Climate Action Task Force, which organized the session.
Whitehouse said the session was needed to highlight obstacles to climate legislation, including ads financed by Charles and David Koch, conservative activists who have spent $15 million on Senate races, mostly criticizing Democrats over Obamacare. The Koch brothers, whose interests include oil, chemicals, textiles and paper, have also spent millions on ads critical of action against climate change.
Whitehouse conceded that lawmakers do not have the 60 votes needed to act on the matter, even in the Democratic-controlled Senate, but said the speeches could help change the dynamic.
'Tonight is not about a specific legislative proposal,' he said. 'It's about showing the environmental community, young people and anyone paying attention to climate change that the Senate is starting to stir and we want to get some actions going.'
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