The Choppy Road Ahead for Senate Climate Change Hearings

Barack Obama speaking on climate change at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty ImagesThe US Senate opens three-days of hearings on climate change on Tuesday, without clear expectations of what will be accomplished.

A powerful Republican senator James Inhofe, an Oklahoma senator who calls global warming a hoax, told reporters late Friday that he and fellow Republicans on the environment and public works committee might refuse to participate. via The Observer.

As reported in HopeTracker, Republican opposition to climate change legislation is not rock-solid. Last week, a leading Republican senator, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, co-wrote with Massachusetts senator John Kerry  a column in the New York Times in support of legislation.

While the US Chamber of Commerce has spent $35 million dollars lobbying for small business against climate change legislation, the world’s largest global conglomerates — including Walmart — are asking for legislation.

Nike and Apple recently resigned from or openly criticized from the US Chamber of Commerce over climate change legislation. The huge PG&E utility company resigned membership.

For all our international HopeTracker readers who care about the environment, don’t give up on us yet. Anne

See also: Apple, Nike and the U.S. Chamber Wall Street Journal

Rift between Obama and Chamber of Congress Widening Washington Post

Into the Lion’s Den: Emanuel to Speak at Chamber of Commerce Dinner (Nov. 4) Fox News