Even though it squeaked through by one vote instead of roaring by with a unanimous tally, Congress´s first global climate change bill nevertheless officially moved beyond the discussion stage this morning.

A seven-member panel chaired by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., voted 4-3 to bump what´s officially known as America´s Climate Security Act of 2007 forward to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. That committee, chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has scheduled a Nov. 8 hearing about the bill.

"Today is a landmark day," a relieved Boxer said after the close vote. "This is an issue that cannot wait. The market is waiting for a signal. Today we sent a signal."

After engaging in a 2.5-hour session of dueling amendments, both Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., voted against the bill. Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia joined them with a "no" vote.

In addition to Lieberman, the other three members of the Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection Subcommittee voting for the bill were Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and John Warner, R-Va., who was unable to attend the meeting because he was hospitalized.

The bill co-sponsored by Lieberman and Warner to tame carbon dioxide and five other planet-warming gases has undergone several facelifts since first being introduced in early August. It made its environment subcommittee debut Oct. 24.

"If passed it would put forth the strongest global warming control law in the world," Lieberman said in emphasizing the urgency of moving forward. "It inevitably doesn´t satisfy everybody´s desire for what a climate change bill should look like."

The almost economy-wide measure introduces a cap-and-trade system covering electric power, transportation and manufacturing. Those sectors account for 75 percent of the nation´s emissions of heat trapping gases. The natural gas sector is also now required to reduce its emissions.

Caps would begin at the 2005 emissions level in 2012, dropping to or below 1990 levels in 2020 before falling 63 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Initially, pollution credits would be both given away and auctioned. A 100 percent auction system would be established by 2036. The bill also strengthens energy efficiency standards for residential boilers as well as commercial and residential buildings.

The bill also gives Congress a the ability to tighten emissions caps if scientific models suggest adjustments are necessary.

"We have a basic duty to leave this planet to our children in better shape than we found it," said Baucus, a coal-state Democrat whose support is crucial to the bill´s passage. Global warming threatens Montana´s heritage by causing drought and warm trout streams, he added. "This bill will make the United States a leader."

"We will never achieve perfection," Lautenberg said. "The question à that arises here à is not whether it´s going to cost more à but what´s the cost of life. We´re talking about everybody´s grandchildren."

Between them, Barrasso, who represents a coal state, and Sanders, an advocate for renewable energy and stricter emissions standards, introduced 16 amendments Thursday.

Senators adopted two of Barrasso´s minor amendments on separate voice votes. It rejected several, including one that would "sunset" the climate change bill five years after it passed.

The panel was no kinder to Sanders. Members passed just one of his eight amendments. That one requires the auto industry to produce vehicles with 35 mph fuel economy to qualify for money distributed by the pollution credit auction.

Though Lautenberg supported Sanders on each vote, the other senators rejected his attempts to: immediately direct $324 billion from the zero and low carbon energy technologies program toward renewables to match the dollars going toward research in clean coal and carbon sequestration; stop "corporate welfare" by giving $232 billion in auction revenues to a block grant programs for state, tribal and local governments instead of the automobile industry; move the pollution credit auction date from 2036 to 2026; halt the start-up of any coal-fired electricity plant until it can sequester at least 85 percent of its carbon dioxide; limit annual offsets among the covered sectors to 420 million metric tons; and reduce overall emissions 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2050.

"This is not old-fashioned politics," Sanders said in response to senators who complimented his passion. "This is chemistry, this is physics, this is science. The issue that we´re dealing with is not passion."

"These are not some radical, wild-eyed ideas," the Vermonter said about cutting emissions more rapidly. "These goals are conservative. We have got to act boldly."

In a news release distributed at Thursday´s meeting, the National Wildlife Federation said the bipartisan vote puts Congress in the hot seat.

"The clock is ticking, and too many members of Congress have been asleep at the wheel," NWF wrote in the statement. "This vote is a wake-up call."

"There´s a lot of good faith all around," Lieberman said about the path his bill eventually takes. "Everybody here wants to do something. The differences are how we do it."

To subscribe or visit go to:  http://www.wastenews.com