Climate change hearings begin in US Senate

It's a rainy day outside the U.S. Capitol, but inside a Senate hearing room, the topic is global warming. The latest from inside the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Witness number one was the co-author of the Senate climate change bill: Democratic Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. He immediately tackled Republican complaints that the bill will cost jobs, hurt the economy, and expand government bureaucracy.

And in case Kerry hadn't been listening, Republicans brought visual aids – two huge black posters propped up behind committee members. In yellow letters, the posters quote headlines from the Wall Street Journal: “Congressional Budget Chief Says Climate Bill Would Cost Jobs” and the Washington Post: "Cap-and-Trade Would Slow Economy, CBO Chief Says."

Kerry told Environment and Public Works Committee members doing nothing will cost much more. He repeated the Democratic mantra that the climate change bill will actually improve the economy by creating jobs and making America energy independent. He told senators the cost of doing nothing would be far more expensive "to your folks."

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The ranking member of the Committee, Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, called cap and trade a tax that will cost industry $300 to $400 billion a year. Kerry pointed out that this bill didn't have a carbon tax – for purely practical political reasons.

Kerry said if the Senate could pass a tax at all, whatever would pass wouldn't be strong enough to change behavior. And changing behavior is what needs to be done to address global warming.

The Senate's newest Democrat, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, represents a state dependent on coal and steel. He begged his colleagues to be "fact oriented" in the debate. Specter added that it would be refreshing to find a bipartisan answer to the problem of climate change.