Barbara Boxer: Cap and Trade Bill 'Like Giving Birth Again'

The process began nine months ago and there have been severe labor pains along the way, so when Sen. Barbara Boxer compared introducing climate change legislation to giving birth Wednesday, she wasn't too far off.

After seeing the House shove through its climate change bill in June, and watching Majority Leader Harry Reid push back the Senate's work on the issue, Boxer and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) held a Capitol Hill press conference to unveil the Senate's version.

Like the House bill, the Senate measure would increase investment in new, cleaner energy technology while also creating a mandatory permitting process for large polluters, as well as an exchange for them to buy and trade carbon credits.

The Boxer-Kerry bill sets a more aggressive schedule than the House bill for reducing greenhouse gases. It calls for cutting emissions 20 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050. The House calls for a 17 percent cut by 2020.

The Senate bill also delays decisions on the specifics of the cap and trade portion of the bill, which generally involves "capping" overall carbon dioxide levels and letting companies buy and sell emissions permits. The sponsors also drop the politically loaded term "cap and trade," calling it "pollution reduction and investment" instead.

Boxer, a California Democrat, predicted the bill will create 1.9 million new jobs by spurring new energy technologies. "If we pass our bill, billions and billions will flow from the private sector," she said. "We will be a leader in the world as we protect the Earth for all who dwell here."

Kerry said the bill is as much about national security as the environment. "It is time to reinvent the way America uses energy," Kerry said. "Our security and our economy will both be strengthened and we cannot afford not to act."

Kerry said the bill will strengthen energy sectors that environmental groups have long spurned -- coal, natural gas and nuclear-- as well as renewable energy. He also said that the cap and trade provisions will cover 75 percent of America's pollution, but will have broad exemptions for homes, office buildings, stadiums, farms and small businesses.

Both Boxer and Kerry said the bill will be budget neutral and will not add to the deficit.

Republicans immediately whacked the bill as another tax scheme. Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, said Democrats "produced yet another massive energy tax that will destroy jobs and raise electricity and gasoline prices."

When asked by Reuters if he would vote for the bill, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said, "Of course not. Never, never, never."

As was the case on the House side, Democrats with energy-based economies did not embrace the bill. Sen. Robert Byrd, from coal-heavy West Virginia, said in a statement that the bill has "a tough road ahead," adding, "I will actively oppose any bill that would harm the workers, families, industries, or our resource-based economy in West Virginia."

President Obama said Wednesday he is "deeply committed" to passing a climate change bill.

As she handed the program over to Kerry, Boxer said, "What a great day. It is like giving birth again." Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a recent mom who stood next to Boxer, shook her head and said, "Not really." To which Boxer said, "OK, it was a different kind of pain."