By Elizabeth McGowan
July 25 — (WASHINGTON) Before next week ends, Sen. Joseph Lieberman vows to deliver the first draft of a comprehensive climate change bill designed to reduce heat-trapping gases by 60 percent to 80 percent by 2050.
The Connecticut independent said the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and then the full Senate will begin reviewing the proposed legislation upon returning from its August recess after Labor Day. It most likely will be an economy-wide, cap-and-trade bill, and probably will include cost-containment provisions.
Lieberman made his promise Tuesday afternoon while chairing a hearing of the Private Sector and Consumer Solutions to Global Warming and Wildlife Protection Subcommittee. Six senators heard testimony from five witnesses who offered input about which economic and international issues are integral to sound climate change legislation.
“I look upon this as an old Marine. We´re going to lay a beachhead,” said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., adding that the newest legislation he´s drafting with Lieberman requires cooperation among Congress, the executive branch and the private sector. “We can´t expect to do it unilaterally.”
Fears that climate change legislation could lead to runaway costs and economic instability prompted Warner to join with two Democratic senators and one Republican to introduce legislation Tuesday geared to protect consumers and businesses. The bipartisan measure would create a Carbon Market Efficiency Board, modeled on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Such an independent board would ensure that the tradable permits to emit greenhouse gases would be efficient, stable and transparent.
Carrying Warner´s military metaphor further, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., labeled “safety valves” included in any legislation as white flags of surrender. The push to reduce emissions and promote energy efficiency will create jobs, he continued.
“We are in a war that we can´t afford to lose,” Sanders said about the manmade contribution to global warming. “The good news is we now know how to win it.”
After Sanders´s comments, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, quickly interjected, “If this is the beachhead, I´m here to spot the landmines.”
“Semper Fi,” a smiling Lieberman responded, barely missing a beat.
Earlier this month, Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., introduced the first climate change bill with a provision ensuring that rapidly developing nations such as China and India be prompted to follow the United States in significantly reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. It is one of a half-dozen climate change measures introduced in the Senate this session.
The complex cap-and-trade measure allows companies to buy and sell the right to emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. However, it has drawn support from unions and industries such as big electrical utilities because it limits the purchase price for permits. Many environmental groups oppose what they´re calling a compromise measure because they say its targets for reducing emissions aren´t ambitious enough.
Sen. James Inhofe, ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said he prefers a carbon tax rather than a cap-and-trade scheme.
“I think it´s a more honest approach,” said the Oklahoma Republican, who found an ally in one witness, Margo Thorning, an economist with the America Council for Capital Formation.
A carbon tax is more efficient and more straightforward, Thorning agreed, because it makes everybody aware of the cost of cleaning the environment.
Warner borrowed his idea for an independent oversight board from a recommendation by Duke University´s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. During his testimony, institute director Timothy Profeta emphasized the importance of Congress focusing on cost containments and how to prevent putting the nation at a competitive disadvantage.
All of the witnesses stressed that carbon capture and storage must become technologically viable for any cap and trade program to succeed. That´s the only way the United States can continue to use coal as an energy source and meet emissions limits.
“There´s no silver bullet, but what we have is silver buckshot,” Profeta said, explaining that reducing emissions requires a combination of geosequestration, renewables and efficiency.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, who chairs the environment committee, called Tuesday´s hearing groundbreaking. The California Democrat added that she and others are trying to schedule a trip to Greenland this weekend to again view on-the-ground effects of climate change.
“I´d say you´re on a great mission,” Boxer told her fellow senators. “It´s a mission that´s important to our grandchildren and their children. When I took the gavel, I only hoped for this day.”