Voinovich Pushes Alternative on Emissions

By Jack Torry and Jonathan Riskind, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

May 1–WASHINGTON — Sen. George V. Voinovich will unveil a stark alternative to a Senate bill on global warming, offering incentives to encourage greater reliance on nuclear power and to develop a commercially viable way to burn coal cleanly.

In a speech Friday in Columbus, the Ohio Republican also is expected to flatly reject imposing a cap-and-trade system that could lead to deep reductions in carbon-dioxide emissions from electrical utility plants, oil refineries and manufacturing plants that generate their own power.

A bipartisan global-warming bill co-sponsored by Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia would impose a cap-and-trade system on American industry to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses by 70 percent by the year 2050.

But in an interview last night, Voinovich said the Lieberman bill, which could be on the Senate floor as early as next month, would “have a dramatic impact on the standard of living on the people of Ohio” through higher energy costs.

Environmentalists fear that Voinovich’s goal is to weaken or kill the Lieberman bill. They say a cap-and-trade system is the only way for the nation to achieve meaningful reductions in the carbon-dioxide emissions that are thought to cause global warming.

“This is something that will give members who oppose global-warming solutions a place to hide,” said Dan Weiss, director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress, a progressive organization in Washington.

“Sen. Voinovich’s approach is one that basically says we’ll put out this 10-alarm blaze by someday building a firetruck,” Weiss said. “This bill is nothing more than a formula for more delays while millions of tons of carbon dioxide go into our atmosphere.”

Details of Voinovich’s approach emerged as Sen. Sherrod Brown yesterday announced a $36 billion measure aimed at boosting “green energy manufacturing” efforts nationwide. The Ohio Democrat said his bill could help make Ohio the Silicon Valley of alternative energy.

Brown’s bill is aimed at spurring the commercial development of wind and solar energy, both clean-air technologies. But Brown’s bill does not aim to provide money for nuclear power or develop technologies to burn coal while emitting less carbon dioxide, though he would help fund efforts to store the gases produced by coal.

Voinovich does not have a final bill written. But early drafts of his proposal were made available by environmentalists who are critical of Voinovich’s approach.

A cap-and-trade system is aimed at offering a market solution to reduce greenhouse gasses. The 1990 Clean Air Act relied on a cap-and-trade system to cut reductions of sulfur dioxide poured into the air by coal-fired utility plants.

The government would set a limit on how much carbon dioxide a power plant could emit. In essence, each power plant would have an emission permit for every ton of carbon dioxide sent into the atmosphere.

Plants that stay under their limits would be allowed to sell extra permits to power plants that missed their targets. Thus companies would have an incentive to clean up their emissions so they could sell their permits.

Voinovich’s bill would establish a goal of limiting greenhouse-gas emissions in 2020 to those emitted by the United States in 2006. But under Voinovich’s bill, the federal government could not impose a cap-and-trade system until 2030 if the incentives in the measure do not lead to deep reductions of carbon dioxide.

Brown’s bill would have the government spend money over five years — starting with $1 billion in the first year and ramping up to $10 billion by the third — on grants, loans and other investments aimed at spurring new energy technologies.

He said he would get the money for his proposal by using some of the revenue produced by an eventual climate bill, though he does not yet favor the Lieberman-Warner Bill and was not familiar yesterday with Voinovich’s bill.

By Jack Torry and Jonathan Riskind

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