GOP Leader Lays Out His Party's Global Warming Principles

(US News)  Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a Wisconsin Republican and ranking member of the Select Committee on Energy and Independence and Global Warming, this morning spelled out the four principles that will most likely guide conservatives through the debate on global warming and poverty.

In addition to yielding "tangible environmental benefits," Sensenbrenner said at a committee hearing, any policy must support technology innovation "across the energy spectrum, from nuclear to clean coal to renewables to improved energy efficiencies." Said policy would also protect U.S. jobs and, building on recent news that China will surpass the United States this year as the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, "must require global participation."

Just how the United States would force China or another country to participate in such a plan was left unanswered. The panel of witnesses consisted solely of scientists, but the subject of carbon taxes, advocated by one witness, NASA climate scientist James Hansen, was prevalent.

Sensenbrenner, a staunch opponent of the idea, quizzed Hansen repeatedly on what taxation level would induce the desired behavior of reduced consumption and technological innovation. Hansen suggested the creation of a nonpartisan "tax czar" to decide such a rate.

The idea was quickly shot down by Sensenbrenner, who noted that "there's a thing called the Constitution that gives the House of Representatives exclusive authority to raise taxes."


By Bret Schulte