Cap-and-trade role on national security sparks debate in Senate

The cap-and-trade bill will do little to stop trade wars overseas and will instead start conflicts that will threaten American workers at home and abroad, Missouri senator Kit Bond said Thursday during remarks at the Senate Environment and Public Works hearing.

“Waxman-Markey not only threatens our economic security at home with massive U.S. job loss, but also threatens our economic security abroad by starting a new international carbon trade war,” Bond said Thursday. “A carbon trade war will hurt Missouri farmers who could no longer export their crops overseas and a carbon trade war will hurt Missouri manufacturing workers who could no longer export their products overseas.”

Senator bond represents critics of the bill who also attacked the legislation by recalling recent comments from the Environmental Protection Agency's administrator, Lisa Jackson who said that if the U.S. alone - excluding big polluters such as China and India - passes the climate bill, it won't have appreciable effects on world temperatures.

However later in the discussions, retired Senator John Warner who attended as a witness, remarked strongly that in order for China and India to follow, the U.S. had to take leadership.

We’ve got to lead and I do believe they will follow, Warner said today.

On the other hand, supporters of the bill debated if the Markey-Waxman bill was important in strengthening national security.

Despite what Republicans or Democrats supported, it was evident that the nation's reliance on foreign energy puts the U.S. in at a security risk, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar commented.

Citing a National Intelligence Council assessment, Klobuchar said climate change's effects could cause political instability, massive movements of refugees, terrorism and conflicts over water, among other damages.

For many years, the world’s experts on security have been telling us that global warming is a threat to our nation’s security, and a danger to peace and stability around the world, Senate Committee's Chairman Barbara Boxer said during her opening remarks.

We need to accelerate the process of building a new American clean energy economy. Clean energy is the United States' path towards economic leadership, a robust recovery, a cleaner, healthier life for our families, and a safer, more secure world, she added.

The Senate is expected to finish its version of the climate bill by September, Boxer told Reuters.