FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 6, 2008

Contact: Erika Masonhall, 202-224-4041

Majority of Senators Step Forward to Support Mandatory, Comprehensive Climate Legislation

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today 54 members of the United States Senate, including 9 Republicans, demonstrated their desire to move forward with the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. Forty-eight Senators voted to invoke cloture on the substitute amendment that Senators Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) and John Warner (R-VA) had worked out with Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. An additional 6 Senators submitted statements that they would have voted in favor of moving forward as well had they been present.

"We have convinced a majority in the Senate to support mandatory, comprehensive, market-based legislation to curb global warming and enhance US energy security," said Lieberman. "We have brought this vital legislation within hailing distance of passage in the new Congress that begins in January. I am confident that the next Congress will pass and the next President will sign into law legislation addressing this critical problem. I am deeply grateful to my co-author, John Warner, and my Chairman, Barbara Boxer."

Lieberman and Warner introduced the bipartisan Climate Security Act on October 18, 2007. On December 5, 2007, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted to report the bill favorably to the full Senate. That marked the first time that a Congressional committee had reported comprehensive climate legislation in either the Senate or the House of Representatives.