Climate and energy

Tune in next session! Because we’ll be back. That was the message that supporters of Warner-Lieberman gave this morning, as the legislation failed to get the sixty votes needed to continue on in the Senate.

The measure received 48 votes, but six other senators not present for the vote – McCain, Obama, Clinton, Biden, Kennedy, and one I missed (sorry) – had supportive statements entered into the record, saying that they would have voted yes if they had been there. That would have left supporters only six votes shy.

The debate this past week was a lot like a really interesting first round in a poker game that is going to last until the wee hours.

CEP tracked the various arguments (pro and con) that popped up - Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4. We’ve seen many of them before in the Kansas energy debates, and I am sure we will all see them again as local, state, national, and international debates about lowering greenhouse gas emissions continue.

For Kansans interested in carbon regulation, Yale environmental economist Dr. Robert Repetto will be at the Kansas Electricity Council meeting this next Tuesday, June 10. He will speak on cap and trade, using Warner-Lieberman as an example.

The meeting begins at 9:00 a.m. and he is scheduled to speak at 9:15. The meeting will be held at the Eisenhower State Office Building (KDOT), Auditorium A, 700 SW Harrison, Topeka.

— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org