Warner takes climate-bill support on road

NORFOLK

Overshadowed by the health care debate, another huge issue is about to burst onto the national stage: climate change.

The Senate is poised to begin hearings on proposed legislation, known as "cap and trade," that represents the first effort by the United States to combat greenhouse gases and curb a slowly warming planet and rising seas through extensive new rules and regulations.

The House already has passed a different version of the bill, which now covers more than 1,500 pages, and President Barack Obama has said he hopes Congress takes action in time for an international conference on global warming in Copenhagen in December.

In anticipation of that debate, former Republican Sen. John Warner came to Norfolk on Tuesday as part of a national tour in battleground states urging support for climate-change legislation written mostly by Democrats.

Speaking at the Chrysler Museum of Art, and earlier to the Virginian-Pilot editorial board, Warner said his motives are not only about the future of the environment, energy supplies and economic competitiveness but about national security - an issue that always attracts attention in military-rich Hampton Roads.

In tinderbox regions of the world, Warner argued, climate change already has created, and will continue to create, political instability and the potential for conflict through shortages of food, water and energy. He mentioned Darfur and Somalia as places where these factors have led to war, adding that the tensions also can be manipulated by radical Islamic forces.

Global warming, the retired Virginia senator said, "is portrayed as a clash between the environmental community and the power-industry community. But guess who's in the middle? Those men and women serving in our armed forces."

Working with the Pew Project for National Security, Energy and Climate, Warner and former military colleagues at the Pentagon who share his opinions have been traveling in recent weeks to Indiana, Missouri, Florida and Michigan "to spark conversations and get the word out to the ranks."

Increasingly, though, advocates seem to be facing an uphill battle in Washington.

The country is still awash in debate over the health care overhaul, which would costs hundreds of billions if passed, and it faces continuing economic problems, budget deficits and rising concerns about debt.

How, then, can America be expected to take on climate change and its expected cost obligations?

"Yes, it's complex. And yes, it's costly," Warner answered. "But the rest of the world is figuring out how to do this, and Americans are going to end up being the ones buying all the technologies that others developed."

Still, Warner may have trouble convincing the two senators from his home state, both Democrats, to vote for the bill, which goes before five Senate subcommittees within weeks.

Sen. Jim Webb, for example, has "expressed real concerns about the concept of cap-and-trade" and "does not really share the opinion of Senator Warner on this issue," said Jessica Smith, Webb's communications director.

The bill would set a limit on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that power plants, industries and other emitters could release into the sky, but would also let them buy, sell and trade carbon credits to bring them into compliance.

Sen. Mark Warner stood with Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and John Kerry, D-Mass., when they released the Senate version of the bill Sept. 28. But in speeches, Mark Warner also has expressed reservations, though he seems to favor action of some sort this year.

Speaking last month to the National Energy Summit and International Dialogue, Mark Warner said, "The idea that we're going to, for one more year, delay trying to take on this critically important issue around energy would be a competitive, financial and potentially environmental disaster."

Some Republicans in the Senate have vowed to defeat the bill outright, including Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the ranking member of the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

At a conference organized by global-warming skeptics this summer, Inhofe predicted cap-and-trade would pass the House but stall in the Senate, where previous attempts to enact climate-change legislation have died.

Among the deceased was a bill co-sponsored two years ago by then-Sen. John Warner.

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com