Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, today released the following statement regarding the Committee’s approval of S. 1733, the Kerry-Boxer Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.  The bill passed the committee on a vote of 11-1, with all seven Republican members absent.

Senator Boxer said, “A Majority of the EPW Committee voted to send the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act – S. 1733 -- to the floor of the Senate today in full accordance with longstanding Committee and Senate Rules. 

We did it for three reasons.   

  1. S. 1733 addresses a crucial issue of our time and advancing the bill is a necessary step on the road to garnering the 60 votes we need for a comprehensive bill that will be melded together from various Committees and Senators from different regions of the country.  This bill is already being worked on by Senators Kerry, Lieberman, Graham and others.
 
  1. We found, after questioning the EPA extensively, that the Republicans’ demand for another EPA analysis now would be duplicative and a waste of taxpayer dollars. The absence of the Republicans during the EPA’s presentation was a clear message that their criticism of the EPA analysis was not a substantive one.  Indeed, the EPA said their economic analysis was “unprecedented” in scope and was never done for any other energy or climate bill at this stage of the process.
 
  1. The Committee and Senate rules that have been in place during Republican and Democratic majorities are there to be used when the Majority feels it is in the best interest of their states and of the nation to act.  A majority of the Committee believes that S. 1733, and the efforts that will be built upon it, will move us away from foreign oil imports that cost Americans one billion dollars a day, it will protect our children from pollution, create millions of clean energy jobs, and stimulate billions of dollars of private investment.
 

We are pleased that despite the Republican boycott, we have been able to move the bill.”

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