Republicans attempt to block Lieberman-Warner bill

Environmental and business groups were left frustrated this week after republican senators deployed a range of delaying tactics designed to block debate on the proposed Climate Security Act.

The bill, also known as the Lieberman-Warner Act, was scheduled to be voted on by the Senate this week but progress has been hampered by Republican attempts to filibuster the legislation, including forcing congressional clerks to read the entire 492 page bill aloud – a move that took eight hours.

The move prompted a furious response from green groups, who claimed the senators behind the delaying tactics "should be ashamed of themselves".

A coalition of 13 environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the Sierra Club and the Audobon Society, issued a joint statement calling on republicans to abandon their blocking tactics. "The opposition in the Senate must give up its strategy of denial, delay and disinformation," the groups wrote. "Allies of the coal and oil industry are hijacking the Senate floor at a time when an overwhelming majority of Americans want our country to build a clean energy economy."

Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope said Senate republicans were guilty of blocking "meaningful consideration" of the first serious measure to combat global warming to reach the Senate floor. "It is time for solutions, not stalling," he added. "While the Senate leadership has proposed real relief for consumers suffering from skyrocketing energy costs, unfortunately Senate republicans have nothing to offer but reading and roadblocks."

The bill – which would introduce a US-wide cap-and-trade scheme designed to curb emissions by up to 67 per cent by 2050, as well as introduce generous tax breaks to promote investment in clean technologies – has secured widespread support from a range of business groups, including a coalition of 13 leading energy companies and the Ceres group of institutional investors.

The short-term prospects for the bill are further clouded by President Bush's confirmation earlier this week that he would veto the bill if it is passed by the Senate.

The President said the proposed cap-and-trade scheme would lead to job losses and impose $6tr (£3tr) of costs on the US economy. However, supporters of the bill disputed the President's figures, claiming that government research had shown that the legislation would cost the US less than one per cent of GDP by 2050 and argued that the costs associated with unmitigated climate change would be far higher.