Grassley doesn't want U.S. to be 'Uncle Sucker'

Adopting environmental restrictions in hopes major carbon-emitting counties, including China and India follow suit, is likely to be a fool's game, Sen. Chuck Grassley warned Wednesday.

"If they don't follow, then we're going to be Uncle Sucker," Grassley said. Without an international agreement, "we're going to be outsourcing more manufacturing jobs to China. We need an international agreement that hits China with a reduction of CO2 as much as we do because they're putting more into the air than we do."

Grassley, who favors an international approach, concurred with EPA testimony before the Senate Finance Committee earlier this week that if the U.S. adopts CO2 standards without cooperation from other industrialized nations it will make little difference in delaying the impact of climate change.

Grassley doubts the bill will come up in the Senate this year because health care, bank regulation and appropriations will be higher priorities. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated he doesn't have the votes to pass legislation similar to that approved by the House, Grassley added.

That's in part because of opposition from senators in the Midwest and Plains states and other states that rely heavily on coal to produce electricity, Grassley said.

"It's unfair," he said. "You know, the votes for it in the House of Representatives were pretty much along the coastal states where they got natural gas and/or hydropower. And so it's very serious economic infringement on job creation in the middle part of the country."