Poor Should Be Protected in Climate Change Legislation

• Contact both U.S. Senators Immediately

The United States Senate is considering climate change legislation that could adversely affect the poor if amendments are not adopted. Debate concerning the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008 (S. 3036) is expected to continue over the next two weeks. Your action is needed now to ensure better protection for the poor.   

S. 3036 institutes a program that provides incentives to lower greenhouse gases. The bill is intended to encourage more fuel efficiency and greater use of clean energy sources. However, the effect of the bill will be to raise the price of fossil fuel energy including gasoline and coal. In order to mitigate these effects, S. 3036 includes provisions to assist consumers, especially lower income families. The bill also allocates funds to assist poorer nations who lack the resources to address climate change. The United States Catholic bishops support these provisions but consider them inadequate. The bishops are urging United States Catholics to contact their Senators to ask for support for two amendments:

Whitehouse Consumer Protection Amendment:  The bishops support an amendment by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to assist the poor in the U.S. in coping with the rising energy costs that are expected due to the climate mitigation policies proposed in S. 3036. The Whitehouse amendment would provide energy rebates to lower-income households and enhance funding for the existing earned income tax credit that assists the working poor.

International Climate Change Adaptation Assistance: The bishops support an amendment by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) that would increase the allocation of funds earmarked to assist poorer nations in addressing climate change. 
          
In their statement, Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good, the U.S. Catholic bishops declared:

“We especially want to focus on the needs of the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable in a debate often dominated by more powerful interests. Inaction and inadequate or misguided responses to climate change will likely place even greater burdens on already desperately poor peoples. Action to mitigate global climate change must be built upon a foundation of social and economic justice that does not put the poor at greater risk or place disproportionate and unfair burdens on developing nations.”

For more background concerning the bishops’ concerns, refer to the letter sent to U.S. Senators by the Most Reverend Thomas G. Wenski, Bishop of Orlando and Chairman of the bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace here.

Initiating policies that address climate change without considering their effect of rising fossil fuel prices would be detrimental to the poor. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, using information provided by the Congressional Budget Office, estimates that a 15% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would cost the poorest fifth of Americans an average of $750 a year per household if no assistance were provided to these families. S. 3036 provides some assistance that would lower this household cost but the U.S. Catholic bishops consider it insufficient and therefore are supporting the amendments described above.

ACTION REQUESTED:

• Contact Missouri’s U.S. Senators Immediately

 Senator Christopher S. Bond (R-MO)
274 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-5721
Web Form: http://bond.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContactUs.ContactForm

Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
717 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-6154  
Web Form: http://mccaskill.senate.gov/contact/

The phone number for the Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121

THE MESSAGE:

Urge Senators Bond and McCaskill to support amendments to strengthen the anti-poverty provisions of the Climate Change bill – S. 3036. The poor will be the most adversely affected by increasing fossil fuel prices, not just through utility bills, but also through transportation and food costs. The climate change bill should provide more assistance to the poor so they can adapt to the new climate change policies proposed in S. 3036. Specifically, urge the Senators to support the amendment proposed by Senators Menendez to assist poor nations with climate change mitigation and the Consumer Protection Amendment proposed by Senator Whitehouse to assist poor people with rising fossil fuel prices.