Chamber of Commerce Battles Climate Bill

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has fired what it calls the "opening salvo" in the fight against the Warner-Lieberman climate bill.

The chamber has unveiled an ad on its website dramatizing what it believes would be the effect of the Warner-Lieberman bill, which mandates government restrictions on carbon dioxide. Arguing that the legislation will make energy prohibitively expensive, the commercial shows a man cooking eggs over a few candles in his kitchen, kissing his scarf-and-woolen-mitten-clad family goodbye, and then running to work rather than driving a car. The ad is already circulating on blogs and beginning Monday will appear on airport monitors at Reagan National Airport and Dulles International Airport.

Bill Kovacs, the chamber's vice president of environment, technology, and regulatory affairs, said other ads "are already in the can." The campaign will attempt to educate the public that "the Lieberman-Warner bill will [force] a major change in our lifestyle," Kovacs said. "People need to focus on what that is." The bill, which has passed a Senate subcommittee, will see increasing opposition if it progresses through Congress, according to Kovacs. In such a case, the ad could see time on cable or network television. Meanwhile, the chamber is organizing members to fight the bill and to promote a technology-based solution, Kovacs said.

—Bret Schulte