WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Al Gore, a leading voice on climate change, urged lawmakers Friday to overcome partisan differences and take action to reduce greenhouse gases, but Democrats and Republicans sparred even more vigorously over the cost of dealing with global warming.
Gore, who won a Nobel prize, told a congressional hearing that "the dire and growing threat” of a warmer earth requires the parties to unite to deal with the threat. He endorsed a House Democratic bill that would limit carbon dioxide and other pollution linked to warming.
But former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., argued that the Democratic proposal to reduce greenhouse gases would "punish the American people” by imposing higher energy costs and threatening jobs.
"This bill is an energy tax,” Gingrich said. "An energy tax punishes senior citizens, it punishes rural Americans, if you use electricity it punishes you.”
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee that is writing the bill, shot back that Gingrich was resorting to "the old scare tactics” designed to undermine any congressional effort to address the problem.
by the associated press
Gore, who won a Nobel prize, told a congressional hearing that "the dire and growing threat” of a warmer earth requires the parties to unite to deal with the threat. He endorsed a House Democratic bill that would limit carbon dioxide and other pollution linked to warming.
But former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., argued that the Democratic proposal to reduce greenhouse gases would "punish the American people” by imposing higher energy costs and threatening jobs.
"This bill is an energy tax,” Gingrich said. "An energy tax punishes senior citizens, it punishes rural Americans, if you use electricity it punishes you.”
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee that is writing the bill, shot back that Gingrich was resorting to "the old scare tactics” designed to undermine any congressional effort to address the problem.
by the associated press
