Climate Bill: In Finance Committee, Baucus Says He’s Committed to Passing Climate-Change Legislation

Last week, U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., was the lone Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee to vote against his colleagues’ climate-change bill. This week, now that legislation is being discussed in the Finance Committee (which he chairs), Baucus used his opening remarks to say he is committed to “passing meaningful, balanced climate-change legislation.” From The Washington Independent:

I want our children and grandchildren to be able to enjoy the outdoors the way that we can today. So I’m going to work to pass climate-change legislation that is both meaningful and that can muster enough votes to become law. [...]

Let me be clear. We should work to minimize any job losses.

But we should recognize that in the case of acid rain [in the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments], the negative [economic] consequences were far less than projected. We should keep this in mind when similar claims are made about the effects of legislation to address climate change.