November 2, 2009

GOP Still Blocking Climate Bill

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Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) says she will move forward on climate legislation tomorrow, with or without Republicans, who have pledged to boycott the markup.

Republican leaders sent a letter to Boxer on Monday afternoon saying they want more  analysis before participating in a markup. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), a member of Boxer’s Environment and Public Works committee, made the initial request. He’s since been joined by a number of GOP ranking members of key committees: Lisa Murkowski (Energy and Natural Resources), Saxby Chambliss of Georgia (Agriculture), Chuck Grassley (Finance), James Inhofe (Environment and Public Works) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (Commerce, Science and Transportation).

The big problem with the senators’ claim is that there’s already plenty of analysis available about the climate bill. The proposal largely mirrors the Waxman-Markey legislation that passed the House in June, which has been scrutinized by the EPA, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Energy Information Administration. The Environmental Protection Agency released a preliminary study of the Senate bill, along with the chairman’s mark, on Friday, Oct. 23. And if that wasn’t enough, Boxer’s committee held nine different panels with 54 expert witnesses last week. For months, Voinovich has been asking for new studies from the EPA, presumably ones that produce doom and gloom predictions that the bill will devastate the American economy. But the raft of studies completed so far show just the opposite.

Although the GOP is trying to hide behind relative moderates like Voinovich—who at least admits that climate change is a problem—in its latest gambit, they’re really aligning with the denialists like Inhofe. The goal is to mire the process in bitter partisan fights until the climate bill stalls indefinitely in the Senate.

EPW committee rules require that at least two Republicans be present to begin markup. In a statement on Monday, Boxer urged Inhofe to call the Republicans back to work and announced that she plans to proceed on Tuesday whether or not her GOP colleagues show up. The markup is slated to begin at 9 a.m. What will happen is anybody’s guess.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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