On May 10, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN), chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations respectively, urged the Administration in a letter to move forward on the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement.

The Senators highlighted the great missed opportunity inaction on this FTA represents and pointed out that our competitors are quick to take advantage.

Through inaction, the United States will cede Korea’s vast markets to other countries, a luxury that we cannot afford.  In 2004, China displaced the United States as Korea’s number one trading partner.  Recently, the European Union and India signed agreements with South Korea to lower trade barriers.  As these countries effectively gain preferential access compared to American products, the United States risks missing significant opportunities, while other countries’ economies grow and create jobs from trade expansion.

Shopfloor made this exact point yesterday and has long called for swift action on this, as well as the Colombia and Panama FTAs, that have languished in Congress for more than a year.

In his statement, Senator Kerry added, “This step could be a significant part of the President’s goal of doubling U.S. exports over the next five years to create well-paying American jobs.”

That won’t happen unless we open foreign markets to our goods and services.

Roll Call, “ Kerry Sparks Fight on Climate“:

In an already challenging election year for the majority, Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) rush to pass a climate change bill has many Democrats scratching their heads and charging that their 2004 presidential nominee could further imperil vulnerable Members this fall.

Climate change had been considered all but dead this year, and Senate Democrats have little appetite to take up the controversial issue after the beating that they have endured over their as-yet-unfinished health care reform efforts.

The Hill, “Sen. Kerry lobbies for climate compromise; actual bill to come“:

The three senators writing compromise climate legislation are lobbying business groups in hopes of winning their support for the effort. One obstacle: the absence of an actual bill…[snip]

As he tries to sell the legislation, Kerry is de-emphasizing its relation to climate change.

“What we are talking about is a jobs bill. It is not a climate bill. It is a jobs bill, and it is a clean air bill. It is a national security, energy independence bill,” he told reporters in the Capitol this week.

A national security, energy independence bill? Really?

From The Anchorage Daily News, “Lieberman to Murkowski: Forget ANWR drilling“:

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Wednesday that opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling might be the price of her swing vote in favor of energy and climate legislation. But The Hill reports today that Sen. Joe Lieberman — a longtime opponent of ANWR drilling — says ANWR drilling would be a “deal breaker” in his attempt to craft a bipartisan climate bill.

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) on his cap-and-blanks bill:

Let me emphasize something very strongly as we begin this discussion. The United States has already this year alone achieved a 6 percent reduction in emissions simply because of the downturn in the economy, so we are effectively saying we need to go another 14 percent.

From MacLeans, Nov. 24, 1997:

[The] European Union’s promise to cut emissions by 15 per cent below 1990 levels by 2010 has been facilitated not only by the collapse of Britain’s coal industry but also by German reunification, which has resulted in reduced emissions in part because of the closure of factories in the former East Germany.

(Hat tip: Taranto, Best of the Web.)

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) held a news conference this morning on the East Front Lawn of the Capitol to announce their cap-and-trade-and-tax climate control bill. (Media advisory) From Sen. Kerry’s news release, “Kerry, Boxer Introduce ‘Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act’“:

This is a security bill that puts Americans back in charge of our energy future and makes it clear that we will combat global climate change with American ingenuity. It is our country’s defense against the harms of pollution and the security risks of global climate change,” said Kerry. “Our health, our security, our economy, our environment, all demand we reinvent the way America uses energy. Our addiction to foreign oil hurts our economy, helps our enemies and risks our security. By taking decisive action, we can and will stop climate change from becoming a ‘threat multiplier’ that makes an already dangerous world staggeringly more so…”

Senator Boxer said, “We know clean energy is the ticket to strong, stable economic growth — it’s right here in front of us, in the ingenuity of our workers and the vision of our entrepreneurs. We must seize this opportunity, or others will move ahead. This is our time. Global warming is our challenge. Economic recovery is our challenge. American leadership is our challenge. Let’s step up right now. Let’s not quit until we have fulfilled our responsibility to our children and our grandchildren.”

Also from Sen. Kerry’s site:

• Read an overview of the bill.
• Read a summary of the bill.
• Read a section by section summary of the bill.
• Read the press release announcing the introduction of the bill.
• Read a description of the Pollution Reduction and Investment mechanism in the bill.
• Read the full bill text

You’ll note the attempt to reframe the discussion through by turning carbon dioxide into “pollution.” (Why not water vapor, also a greenhouse gas.) Cap and trade becomes “pollution reduction and investment.”

So here’s a bill to fundamentally reshape the economy of the United States, render U.S. companies less competitive globally, and reward favored constituencies and what do we get? Marketing…

The NAM will have a statement later in the day.

UPDATE (5 p.m.): Here’s the NAM’s statement. We briefly had it up as a blog post, but since it’s also a news release, no point in duplication.

From The New York Times, “Senators’ Climate Draft Mirrors House Bill, With Some Exceptions“:

Both the early draft and the Boxer-Kerry bill due for release tomorrow will leave blank key information about how the senators intend to distribute hundreds of billions of dollars in emission allowances. Following the path of Democratic leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, those figures will come next month when Boxer releases a chairman’s mark of the bill before an EPW Committee markup.

For advocates of the legislation to establish government control over carbon dioxide the overriding concern is not this provision or that, but getting the tax and regulatory regime in place. First, enact the law, and later on you can make the targets, limits and charges more onerous.

• AP, “Senate climate bill tougher than House version
• Reuters, “Long road, little time for US climate bill“
• Reuters, “FACTBOX-The path to enact a US climate change bill“
• The Hill, “Senate climate bill calls for 20 percent cut“

From Senator Obama’s energy platform, “New Energy for America,” the section, “Diversify Our Energy Sources”:

Develop and Deploy Clean Coal Technology. Carbon capture and storage technologies hold enormous potential to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as we power our economy with domestically produced and secure energy. As a U.S. Senator, Obama has worked tirelessly to provide incentives to accelerate private sector investment in commercial scale zero-carbon coal facilities. In order to maximize the speed with which we advance this critical technology, Obama will instruct DOE to enter public private partnerships to develop 5 “first of a kind” commercial scale coal-fired plants with carbon capture and sequestration.

These points are consistent, quite consistent, with legislation introduced last year by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), S. 2323, the Carbon Capture and Storage Techology Act of 2007. Republican Sens. Arlen Specter and Ted Stevens were the two cosponsors (not Senator Obama). Among other things, the bill would ” establish 3-5 ‘first-of-a-kind’ coal-fired demonstration plants with carbon capture.”

Senator Kerry chaired a Commerce subcommittee hearing on the bill last November:

“If the United States continues to turn a blind eye to dangerous emissions, we will be forced to climb an even steeper hill in battling global climate change,” said Senator John Kerry. “Carbon capture and storage technologies hold enormous potential to reduce our emissions as we power our economy. This legislation and today’s hearing offer a chance to embrace smart solutions the American way: by harnessing technology to help combat the climate change threat.”

Couldn’t have said it better ourselves.