Bipartisan America's Climate Security Act could be key vehicle to address global warming
WASHINGTON, DC-A provision authored by U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) to help create a workforce for new “green jobs” has been added to a global warming reduction bill introduced today by Senators Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) and John Warner (R-VA). Senator Casey’s proposal would provide worker training and other assistance to ease the transition as the United States seeks to reduce global warming pollution.
“I come from a state with a lot of coal and a lot of manufacturing,” said Senator Casey. “The future of Pennsylvania and of my constituents is closely linked to the future of both of these industries. We have a moral obligation to slow, stop and reverse our contribution to global warming, but I am also optimistic that we can do this in a way that protects workers and creates new manufacturing jobs.”
The Climate Change Worker Assistance Program would act as a bridge between the creation of a climate program and the new manufacturing jobs that will result. During this transition period, the program will help transition our workforce to those jobs with minimal impact on families.
The program would help to provide worker training to give workers skills needed for new industry that would be created to help meet pollution reduction goals. The program would also provide temporary health care and income assistance to workers who lose their jobs because of manufacturing continuing to move overseas to countries that have little or no environmental standards.
Senators Lieberman and Warner are the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection Subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW). They were charged by the Chairwoman of the EPW Committee, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), to draft legislation that the Committee would consider to address the critical problem of global warming.
Senator Casey is a cosponsor of the Lieberman-Warner America’s Climate Security Act. In addition, Senator Casey is a cosponsor of the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act introduced by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the Low Carbon Economy Act Introduced by Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and the Clean Air Planning Act introduced by Senator Tom Carper (D-DE).
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