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Senate Begins Debate On Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 May 2008, 15:35 CDT

Discussions over greenhouse gas emissions begin next week in the Senate, as legislators debate a bill that would reduce U.S. global warming emissions by 66 percent by the year 2050.  

"I look upon this piece of legislation as a great big train in the station and we're trying to get it out," Sen. John Warner (R-VA), the bill’s co-sponsor, told Reuters. Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, is the bill’s other co-sponsor.

The contentious bill has the support of environmentalists, but the business community has expressed concerns about its economic impact.  

Known as the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, the measure would cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by about 2 percent per year between 2012 and 2050, based on 2005 emission levels.

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas emitted by coal-fired industries, fossil-fueled vehicles and natural sources.  According to a summary released by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the bill would cap carbon emissions from 86 percent of U.S. facilities, and by 2020 emissions from those would be 19 percent below current levels and by 2050 they would be 71 percent below current levels.  Total U.S. emissions could be reduced by up to 66 percent, the summary said.

The Bush administration has long opposed a cap-and-trade approach for carbon dioxide.  And the U.S . is the only major industrialized nation that did not agree to the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol.

However, all three major presidential candidates --Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) -- support curbing carbon emissions, something that gives cap-and-trade proponents cause for optimism for 2009 legislative action.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), head of the Senate’s environment committee, told Reuters this version of the bill offers tools, such as a utilities rebate program and tax relief, to dampen the economic impact of high prices during the transition to a lower-carbon economy.  

An alliance of 20 environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council, applauded the effort but said the carbon cuts should be tougher.

"The best chance for progress this year on federal global warming pollution limits is for the Senate to strengthen and pass the Climate Security Act," said the organizations in a statement.

"The bill needs to be strengthened to ensure that it will meet the reductions that science dictates are needed to prevent dangerous global warming."

However, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) referenced a U.S. government analysis of the bill's economic impact that estimates a 2.7 percent reduction in U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050.   In an article posted on the Internet entitled "How Green Hysteria Will Hit Home," the AEI said the 2050 emission reduction targets were "absurd and irresponsible."

But the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council argued that the cost of doing nothing would be far larger, and would result in a greater than 3.6 percent GDP reduction that would exceed $3.8 trillion annually in 2008 dollars.

The council cited a study commissioned by Tufts University, and said climate change would carry an enormous price tag, including $950 billion in water costs, $422 billion for hurricanes, $360 billion for real estate losses and $141 billion in increased energy costs.

According to World Resources Institute climate and energy specialist John Larsen, money is critical, because cap-and-trade programs put a value on carbon emissions where they did not exist before.

"They are essentially creating money ... that is distributed around the U.S. economy," Larsen said in a Reuters telephone interview.


"Any time the Congress considers policies that distribute wealth ... you can expect interesting politics."

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On the Net:

Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act

Source: redOrbit Staff and Wire Reports

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